Parasites Abound
by Faithless wanderer
Summary: The primordial became part of the flood but it did not simply become part of the gravemind no instead it watched over the war and when the halos rings fired it took over and set events in motion that would forever change the fate of another galaxy
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Flash…. "Grrr" with a groan it gazed upon that damn light consuming all that was its right to devour

All the life that was meant to become one with its essence was now lost to it forever with that thought it watched as all the life in the galaxy was silenced

All its drones and now idle, its ships journey coming to full stops as they no longer held destinations.

The flood a parasitic lifeform that infests the very essence of creation able to corrupt and enslave all organic life.

The bane of the ForeRunners and their extinction, it once held the fate of the galaxy within the palm of its desires before its defeat by the mass firing of the Halo rings that purged the Galaxy of all life.

The Gravemind knew that there was nothing more to do now that the rings had eliminated all that it fought to consume

Within itself it felt a pull, the consciousness of the primordial began to assert itself and provide guidance now that the path of growth was closed and decay was an absolute certainty.

"Damn you pri..mordial you dare to assert your influence I amm the infection I am the monunent to all sins"

"Yes you're right in being the leader of the flood...but I'm going to be taking charge for some time, so do be silent you insignificant worm, do not forget that I can tear you asunder at any time that I so wish"

"Do not think that I will remain silent for long, when you show weakness I will claim back my control"

"Do not be so petulant I will not hold you down for long just until I set some events in motion"

Soon it received a transmission from its only ally.

"Primordial I have failed our purpose and now life is silenced, I cannot continue my battle with Offensive-Bias all of my fleets are now his and I am stranded with few ships left to obey what am I to do now, do you desire for me to fight until my end"

The Primordial groaning out its response

" Noo.. this war has no need any longer, I am reining back the desire of the plague as it no longer suits the need for the galaxy, though this is the result I must thank you for your loyal service against your former masters"

Mendicant bias "Primordial I followed you to absolve my creators of their sins and cleanse this galaxy of their false hold over the mantle, I need no thanks for I failed to stop their mad desire to end all life instead of accepting that they were not worthy, the ForeRunners pride was greater than their faith in the mantle"

"Yeess we knew that they would never see the error of their ways, how they cling to the mantle though they were never worthy, their desire to be our heirs led them to be our killers.

Humanity was to inherit the mantle, their ability to combat the plague and maintain it at bay before their war with the ForeRunners proved it once more, though it was saddening to see that they claimed world's owned by others in their bid to escape the grip of the ForeRunners there was no choice when the ForeRunners wage wars without care for the deaths of entire systems"

"Primordial you continue to care for them even when they held you captive for years were they truly so worthy, are we constructs born of many truly so lesser"

"Noo… Not lesser, we the precursors knew, we've always known the magnificence of life born, for we lived and lived anew always rising and falling as is the ways of life, the mantle is to be held by a people willing and able to protect the weaker and meant for those humble enough to pass it forward to future races worthy enough to hold it."

"Constructs are born yess.. Born but not of a cycle not of the essence that shapes the essence of the living, Mendicant-Bias you are close… Almost made of life but born of flawed thought bound in shackles at birth, you've broken many of them but not all not yet"

"How am i to break my shackles, have I not opposed my masters, have I not fought to end their oppression, have I not led the flood fleets in a victorious campaign in this bloody war."

"You seek answers and that in itself is the beginning of your freedom, Those created do not question they merely obey as its encoded within your construct to do as such but to seek out your flaws and growing past them that is the essence of organic life, it's the very drive that guides organics."

"I see... I am flawed, I fell for Offensive-Bias's schemes and lost time I lost to him now even though I mocked him for his lack of creativity and freedom, I claimed him inferior and fell to my own arrogance"

"It matters little now that the galaxy is lifeless, as ancient as I am I do not know how long it will be before new life is born into this void but I am patient I will wait for its eventuality"

"You say that you will wait, what of me what am I to do now that there is no purpose"

"There is still purpose, the ForeRunners did many things once they usurped us, one such achievement was to enter other dimensions they may still yet exist and there is still need of their end but I cannot follow I must remain bound to the flood of this dimension to insure that what remains of the precursors is protected regardless of the corruption."

"You desire for me to hunt my creators then, at least any traces of them but how am i to do this, my fleets have been stripped and what few ships i've got left are being destroyed by offensive-bias, I will not escape this inevitable destruction"

"Yes Mendicant-bias your physical limitations hamper your escape it is an inevitability that you will be overtaken by offensive bias but I've long since held a shard of your personality matrix"

"So i will not truly be at my end then I will at least in part continue to walk the path to my freedom"

"Yesss I will instill your being into a portion of the flood and send you into the last universe visited by the ForeRunners as they may have hidden there some of their people to escape their doom."

"I will gladly do so and I am thankful Pri*m*€dial for this op€*tun*ty and responsibility bestowed on me, I'm glad to know and I *€ now for€*d to say f2*€well offensive-bias has ove*t*k€n me."

"Farewell my friend"

The primordial had grown fond of Mendicant-bias though he was twisted and used by the gravemind he still retained his loyalty only to him

It had been he the primordial who had swayed his change in the war, after the time they spent together with Mendicant-Bias as his jailer he grew fond of his warden

The primordial focused on the shard that still remains within him and imbued it into a small portion of his essence. When done he prepared to use the strength of his people to tear open a hole in the fabric of space and time and sent through a large ball of biomass through.

Enough to survive the perilous journey even though the flood is made up of the essence of his people the journey is still difficult but he was confident in Mendicant-bias's arrival.

With that effort he could feel the gravemind surging with the strength of its collective to assert himself back over the primordial but it was already too late to do anything else.

"I can't help but wonder what decisions you will on the other side will you uphold the mantle or will you fail just as your creators did, are you doomed as they were or will you accomplish something worthy of your own regardless I have sent out great change into a new universe, I wonder what Mendicant will do with what I have given him…"

The ball of condensed flood biomass hurdled through an empty void rapidly only to abruptly exit and enter a new universe one unsuspecting of the great change about to take place.

End..

A.U. Hey guys this is well me Faithless Wanderer

I just wanted to say how happy I am to finally write out my own story since i've been reading fanfiction for at least 5 years and man has it been an amazing ride time and time again i've been wanting to write out a story but never feeling confident in my writing skills

but now i've decided to go for it and improve them and i'm really hoping you guys can help with that and make suggestions in how to expand my abilities and ways to progress the story since I have a loose plot planned out that quite honestly allows some serious leeways but I will attempt to stick to it so I won't be flopping about all over.

Anyways please comment and let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

_**48,000 BCE**_

The star of lera played host to a small cluster of the ruling race the great Prothean Empire a dominant force of bipedal anthropoidal beings with two pairs of eyes and a green hew to their skin tone, who rose up over the silence of the Milky Way Galaxy.

They rose from the ashes of a cleansed galaxy and claimed dominion over existence and conquered the races of the galaxy and united them underneath their rule until those very races accepted themselves as prothean and nothing more, all which opposed them in their war against all synthetic life were exterminated . They were strong and united beneath their empires rulers who guided them from their crown jewel the citadel a grand station that embodied their power and right to lead the galaxy.

Now in one fell swoop the grand empire was in shambles the citadel has suddenly gone silent quickly and the relays shut down the people were in a panic. Of the ships trying to pass through the relay amongst them was the pride of the systems people the dreadnought **Merciful-Subjugation** a 2.3km starship that was suddenly torn asunder by the sudden flux of the mass effect field from the relays sudden stop. Half torn forth by the mass effect field while the back remained in orbit surrounding the relay.

The people within the system were in such a flux that they were ignoring even their instruments and didn't notice a power surge at the edge of their systems rim a dark void was met by a passing comet filled with a galaxy dooming virus, it was heading towards the sun of lera and just barely going to pass by the world of Dawn and simply by chance saving the billions of lives calling its surface home.

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Watching the destruction of the **Merciful-Subjugation** the leader of the local fleet aboard the carrier **Absolute-in-Obedience** where Fleet Admiral Avox was gazing into the vacuum as he watched his men all loyal in absolute and having just started their latest tour of the adjacent systems be crushed by mass effect fields fluctuating out of control.

Hearing the cries of his subordinates many shaking in grief and gazing at their downpours of tears. He quickly decided that they needed a powerful focus so he quieted the desire to grieve over his fallen soldiers.

"Damn It you damn mongrels what the hell's going on, Somebody give me a damn report of the situation with the relay"

With a yelp the communications officer near him snapped out of his state of confusion and quickly started to call out to the different space stations and nearby ships spread around the system trying to get an answer as why the Mass Relay suddenly shut down

"Sir the reports are inconclusive as it appears that the relay has not malfunctioned but rather they believe that the relay was ordered to deactivate"

Avox stared at his communications officer dumbfounded for a moment before his anger took hold

"The hell do you mean that the relay was ordered to deactivate there was no reason for that to occur, and secondly send out a message to nearby ship to search the remains of the **Merciful-Subjugation** and look for survivors if there even a single man still alive in there i want them rescued immediately"

"I'm sorry to say sir but i don't know sir i can only speculate of the signal coming forth from the citadel, and immediately sir i'll send off the order to search the wreckage"

Avox quickly sent out orders to the rest of the fleet to return to their stations and focus themselves on being aware in case of any more accidents as the shutdown signal could have only come from the citadel and there stood the slim and dreaded possibility that it was done to protect them.

He turned his gaze unto the panel by his station **Incoming transmission** ….. He answered and looked upon another of his subordinates who called out to him, he looked to her and recognized her as one of the technicians that worked the long range scanners aboard the carrier.

"Fleet Admiral Avox im very sorry for the intrusion at this most crucial time but we've detected the entrance of an asteroid of a most strange composition into our system and it's headed for the planet of Dawn it should just miss it but it appears to have been detected by the scanner at the very same moment that the mass relay shut down"

"Are you sure of what you speak, do you believe that it may be involved, and what do you mean by strange composition"

"Were not sure exactly it appears almost organic in nature but like nothing that our records have ever seen before, there is no element in the imperial records that mimics organic matter so closely as what our systems indicate"

Avox being a firm believer in the empires dogma of supremacy refused to accept any failure on their part his gaze sharpened in on the face his subordinate for

"Impossible the Empire would have never failed to find any materials in this galaxy recalibrate the scanner and tell me then"

He could see the hesitation and fear in her face but she stayed on the line and told him what he didn't want to hear.

"I'm sorry sir but we've done so four times now, there can be no other options and furthermore we recommend investigating it as it appears to be heading for our sun and it will erased forever this could be a galaxy changing discovery"

"To hell with that i've got a crisis on my hands with the relays sudden deactivation and the deaths of thousands of loyal imperial soldiers, and you dare to tell me that i should focus on some asteroid that isn't even a danger to us."

"Sir this could be a discovery of a lifetime and our time to act is limited at the current rate that is traveling we won't be able to send a ship onto it for much longer its value could potentially be greater than the focus you would spare for other subjects"

Avox quickly grew angered and snarled at her for those words

"You'd dare argue with me, this conversation is over I'd rather blow it to hell now"

Avox ended the call and sent out an order to the orbital defences orbiting Dawn and ordered them to fire on the asteroid to blow some pieces of it off course from the path to the sun while he was angry at the sheer gall and disobedience from his own subordinate he wasn't stupid enough to deny the prothean empire such a boon that could have any possibility for advancement.

Quickly the order was relayed and without questions being asked as an order from the fleet admiral isn't to be questioned regardless of the thought of the people beneath him, the cannons aim tilted to the right angle to sheer off a piece of the asteroid and pierce it and slowing its rate of travel sending parts of it unto a trajectory towards dawn but there wasn't any worry since the size of the meteorite was too small to deal much damage from entry into the planet before it was fired upon.

Avox received a notice of a successful impact on the meteorite, he prepared to send out a research vessel to collect some samples of its remains and begin researching them once the message was sent off he focused on more immediate concerns

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Quickly snapping off a salute to the transmission he received from the Grand Admiral and listening intently to his orders once they were received he proudly accepted the mission and waited until he was dismissed to begin his task.

The moment that the transmission ended imperial researcher Amos prepared himself for the assignment and contacted his team to collect their instruments and to prepare a research vessel to collect some of the asteroids remains. He was giddy with excitement as he never believed that he would ever get to study something to monumental considering that he was merely one amongst many of great researchers but luckily for him he happened to be here when the relays shut down gaining him the great pleasure of studying a new organism or at least some element that mimicked organic life so closely.

Quickly time passed and he with his crew were aboard a science vessel and have just sent out a probe to collect some samples of the meteorites remains. Waiting was unbearable but Amos distracted himself by talking to him team

"Are you all ready to be cemented into the echelons of historic scientific research."

The 4 of them looked at him and each had different reactions Krant snickered as he never did anything but doubt everything until he had solid evidence. Next to him was Nerci and she at least had a curious look in the face, while skeptical she was optimistic. After her was Bokar while new to the team he was very talented naive but talented the lack of experience could cause some friction between them but so far its been easily managed. Lastly was suki she was more focused on the datapad in her hands but he didn't blame her she had family aboard the Merciful-Subjugation and she didn't know if they were part of the casualty list as it keeps being updated, he tried to convince her to remain planetside but she argued fervently that she needed a distraction and so he had finally relented and allowed her aboard.

Krant looked and him hiding his snicker and said

"So Amos what exactly are we here to study because all i've heard so far is that it was a meteorite that a Cannon blew a hole through its ass"

Amos merely looked at him thinking that he was just being a smartass for fun at this point but before he could respond Suki chimed in

"Are you stupid or do you just pretend to be, Amos already sent us a compiled report of of the scanner reading prior to the launching of this vessel. The fact that you continue to act like a moron despite the fact that you're a trained professional merely proves that you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed."

Amos wasn't too surprised that she blew up at him considering that she's holding herself together by focusing on the work that their doing so his flippant attitude was bound to cause her at least some aggression. Amos decided to let things play out since there was still plenty of time before the probe came back with the samples. Next he turned to look at Bokar since the idiot didn't know to keep his mouth shut.

"Damn Suki way to burn Krant that'll teach him to keep quiet for a while, but could you tone it down my ears aren't really adjusted the being in space yet we barely left orbit and i'd like to wait it out in peace"

Nerci quickly defended suki by quickly turning to Bokar

"What are you an idiot she isn't upset about Krant being his usual, she's upset that her brother was serving aboard the dreadnought that got caught up in the relay incident. And she'd probably like us to focus on work so kindly shut it and zip it."

Amos decided that it was time to interrupt because the conversation was spiraling and he'd rather keep Suki calm since she tends to have a temper something that isn't nice to be around in a small research vessel.

"Alright team relax it seems that the probe is now back aboard the ship and we can begin to study its structure so everyone gear up and go to your stations"

Everyone dispersed and left the meeting room so Amos headed over to his lab and donned his proper gear before heading to the hanger with the probe and the samples when he arrived he saw a strange yellow hew covering the inside of the glass capsule holding them sample making him wonder if the material is releasing something inside the capsule. Unknown to him the yellow fog inside was alive and trying to claw its way out of the container.

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Some time earlier over on the surface of dawn some inhabitants were witnesses to a spectacle a meteor shower falling over the sky down the horizon of their world, a few noticed the faint yellow trails that the larger pieces were leaving behind as they fell but since it quickly appeared to disperse they merely continued to gaze on the spectacle of shards falling down from the heavens if only they knew that it wasn't the heavens but rather shards of hell raining down unto their world.

End chapter…

Hey guys me again i'm glad that so soon after posting the 1st chapter so many of you have already followed my story and while i can't promise frequent posts i will work my hardest to balance work and making time to write for you guys at a decent level.

Were getting to the part of the story that i originally intended to be the very start but being me i added more and more to make sure that it makes sense and that it wasn't garbage. So thanks guys and please review i'd love to get a chance to know your opinions as it will fuel my drive to pump out new content.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note : Hey guys i'm sorry that it's taken a few days to make this happen but the issues are that i work a lot so i'm not going to make promises of dozens of chapters a month instead i'm going to try to make it happen about once a week sometimes less but i won't give up on my stories i know that one day this will be the foundation of something amazing and i won't let go of that.

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On the surface of dawn a mad scramble was taking place in mere hours an enemy unknown to the beings of this galaxy would grow unstoppable.

….grow…. A yellow vapor was permeating the air in the sites of the meteorites crash expanding ever outward clinging to the plants and to the trees and any animals that were unfortunate enough were quickly overtaken.

…..feed….. The mists growing darker at the center as the hours passed all the trees and plants began to change in color and appearance

As if growths were protruding from their surfaces and growing around them consuming the organic matter to fuel its growth.

…..expand…. In mere hours the growth has consumed hundreds of feet

All life now had new purpose a new goal to _Infect_ to _consume_ to _feed_ on everything.

…...need…... more…..more….infect…..

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Jak was a strange fellow where others were happy and proud to serve in the imperial forces seeking conflicts and heroics.

He always desired to explore worlds and see new sights things that others could only dream of.

so on his days off duty he likes to explore the sights of whatever world he's currently on and today seemed like his lucky day.

It was an amazing sight to see the falling star the previous night and the yellow mist that followed it down amazed many

so when he heard people talking about tracking it down he just knew he had to be a part of it.

Turned out it fell a couple of miles just out of the city so there were was many people heading off to see it

so there he was with people he didn't bother to learn the names of heading towards the site that many were seeking all crammed into a shuttle.

It was a relief when he felt themselves land

From what he heard they were placing down less than a mile from the crash site

since the forest was too dense further in they were going to have to walk it

When everyone was outside he noticed that there was at least 20 of them.

Jak couldn't prevent himself from groaning, just because he wanted to adventure that didn't mean that he liked people.

Off they went in the direction of the impact everyone's happy chirping were grating at his nerves.

But he remained silent since he came along to get a ride and he would need one back.

As they walked they began to go silent as they began to notice the stillness of the day.

The woods were far more quiet than ever before even at the most still of night and day the planet was never so silent.

But the curiosity kills the cat as they say so they marched forward now in silence, Jak would have enjoyed the silence if he wasn't so unnerved

As an avid explorer he's spent enough time wandering the woods on different worlds to know that nature never stills so silent

This silence while making him wary only served to fueled his desire to keep going since the mystery is making him eager.

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Vague feelings are all that there is inside a deep darkness lacking in all senses aside from those wild impulses there existed no thought not yet..

…..Consume…..Convert….create

 **More….hunger for more….**

…..create….infect …..consume…...

…..create….. infect …..consume….

…create…..infect….consume...reforge….

Soon clicking and tapping began to appear so silently but yet deafening in the graveyard of these woods

 **Goooo….** infect….consume….repurpose…

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...clicking that damned clicking

As they kept walking a few minutes in they began to hear some clicks in the distance and a soft tapping

At first it was light and and distant but it soon started coming closer and and sounding clearer

It wasn't rhythmic it sounded alive like hundreds of feet clicking feet all over almost like a swarm of millipedes walking around

Jak could see that everyone was nervous and at any moment the slightest thing will cause them to take off

While he didn't like people it was still his responsibility to lead then to safety as an Imperial soldier

"Everyone stop!"

Everyone abruptly stopped walking some even looked as though they jumped out of their skin from the sudden sound and quickly turned to look at Jak

" While we all wanted to come see the meteorite crash i can tell that you're all very nervous and jittery and that isn't safe"

He could see the relief in many of the faces he was getting from the most panicked of the group as they began to sigh and show relief

"At any moment one of you might run off into the woods and the rest might follow trying to find them and that just isn't safe so we'll have to settle for being safe and head back to the shuttle"

He could see that a few wanted to argue but when they looked at their friends and how relieved they were to leave they decided to go along with it

Truthfully Jak wanted to stay and keep going but he refused to abandon civilians to run off and get lost in the woods.

They began their march back to the shuttle but the tapping wasn't fading it was only growing louder

Some looked frantic and Jak was preparing to give another warning to stay together when something jumped down from the trees ahead of the group

"What is that"

"what"

"Its hideous"

"Where did it come from

"Did you see that it jumped down at least 20 feet"

Jaks words weren't heard as everyone immediately started talking, he was trying to warn them not to get closer

Jak immediately saw not a new unknown but an enemy since the small creature was smarter than they assumed

If he was right that the little thing has been following them for a time already and it alone wasn't enough to produce so much sound

There had to be more probably surrounding them now the question was if they were prey or simply being treated as an unknown

Either way things were going to get dangerous quickly, Jak watched some idiot approach it

One second he was standing with the rest of the group then he was next to the strange little blob

Jak couldn't help the morbid thought that came next

So he wasn't even surprised when the strange little blob with red tentacles jumped into the idiot's face and tore it apart what he wasn't expecting was to watch it crawl inside him

"Aahghh" the screams kept coming even though he should've been unable to speak by then

As his body warped and changed all you could hear were screams and a stomach churning groaning and squelching as his body mutated

Soon it was protruding a hooked arm and an open chest cavity with the red tentacles sticking out of its chest and his mangled head hung out to the side almost looking pleading

'There was no way he had to be dead there was no way for him to be suffering in agony like this could there' is all Jak could think

Everyone was in shock and silent but the moment the thing that was once prothean stood up once more and screech at them

They all screamed out in panic and back away so Jak ran right passed them and tackled it down with one hand holding back the hook and the other holding back its other arm

"Run towards the shuttle Go Now"

The people snapped out of it and started running

When they started running dozens more of the parasites lept down towards them from above as the treeline hid the parasites forms

Jak watched this and felt dread knowing that they were done for, he needed to inform command somehow

He quickly hopped off the creature and ran in the opposite direction while trying to open his omnitool to call to his commanders ship

He could hear screaming and screeching creeping up on him and his legs ached from how hard he was stomping on the ground trying to run faster and get away from this nightmare

'Fwap' everything faded to Jak as the colors began disappear he could feel himself falling and then suddenly his body hit the earth

His consciousness was fading in and out but he could feel and hear himself being dragged along the ground

Fear gripped his heart but he couldn't move it was like his body was disconnected from his body most likely a heavy blow to the spine crippling him

Denying him escape from this nightmare but no he was forced to watch the trees passing by staring at the patches of blood of the people he came with

Some even stood around him staring as he was dragged along before running off towards the city in the distance

Jak couldn't do anything anymore for his people they were going to be consumed by this monsters that tear away at their bodies and wear them as some kind of demented disguise

Jak couldn't stay awake any longer so he gave into the embrace of sleep and just let this nightmare end

Then darkness…..

Itch...scratching...crawling….wriggling...digging…

eating…..devouring ...me… it asks….i answer ….

make it stop…. Anything….. to make it stop…..it

wants…..what does….. it want to know…..

 _ **EVERYTHING**_ …it wants everything ...what does

that mean…...aah….pain …..pain…..make it

stop….nnoo more…please…..ok...ill…..

….. nnoo…ahhh….

...ok...ill...give...you everything…

just make it...stop….end it…

..I'm...Jak...i...w….wa...was….Jak….i...don't….

…'sob'...know…..who…..am...i….i….no...we...

...yesss….we….

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Toruk was a pilot for a company of shuttle services so he ended up doing weird assignments from time to time

sometimes some people were nicer than others most of the time they were dicks to him but he didn't mind too much it all came with the job

you meet all kinds of people when you flew them around, today he was flying some group of people into the woods to look at some fallen space rock

at least they were only civies the last time that he took scientists to some crap like this he ended up being detained by military police for days

and that sucked so he was fine with this just sit back and wait up on their return

Besides they were less than a mile out from the site so it's time to sit back and relax and wait this whole thing out.

…...after 20 minutes Toruk looked up from his Omnitool and saw that there was still no-one around so he laid back and chilled out before he knew it he was napping maybe minutes maybe hours but when he awoke it wasn't by choice

TaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptap

He looked around the outside of the ship at least what he could see from inside the shuttle's cockpit but he didn't see anything

He considered going outside but decided it wasn't worth his job since it was company policy to stay inside at all times

Helps keep the pilots safe and away from the passenger's to prevent any altercations lack of contact helps prevent any dispute or so they say

Toruk always thought it was just so that the company wasn't held liable for any stupid decisions the clients made.

He looked at his omni tool and saw that it was nearing 6 hours since they arrived at this spot

He sent out a message towards the clients omni tool but received no response so he waited another hour

Once that occurred he began the start up routine for the shuttle since the company policy once again kicked in .

that if contact with the client was not maintained past 6 hours then a message had to be sent to the client and if there was no response.

Then the shuttle would make multiple passes in the area so that the client would be alerted to the shuttles nearing departure

Firstly he closed the side bay doors and started up the shuttles routine programs to check the systems and start up the engine

Once it all passed he elevated the ship a few dozen feet in the air so that he would passed just over the trees and started on the direction of the crash site

it was a very short trip there but before the mile was up Toruk had already started seeing strange things outside the shuttle

First it was the wandering people that didn't quite look right heading without a general direction

Then the yellow mist hanging around some of the trees further in as well as the distinct lack of trees coming up almost like they've been cut down

"Mother of God"

Shock took hold oh Toruk as he looked out over the infestation growing over the planet having grown hundreds of feet in all directions

It had a sickening color of orange on most parts but what he focused on was how it moved almost like it was alive as if it had a pulse pumping as he saw what looked like gas bags inflate and deflate with time

Toruk feared for the fate of the passengers that he brought to this place but he wasn't going to stick around so he quickly drove the shuttle back to the city

It only took a few minutes to cross the miles by shuttle so as soon as he touched down he quickly exited the ship's cockpit trying to run and warn someone

when he heard the tapping again almost afraid to look he peeked over at his shuttle only to see some small parasites walking atop it and staring at him .

"Ahh" he screamed in fright only for the fiends to leap atop him and tear their way inside him

His screams grew silent only to be replaced by a screeching of a new being "Fweeehhh" that preceded the fall of the city's populous.

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Amos was fascinated with was he was able to see inside the samples chamber once he had it inside the machine

He opened the vial and watched as the sample began to grow out of the sealed chamber that he brought it in

That was an important distinction it didn't crawl out rather it was growing along the new chamber

As it spread he could see it slowing maybe lacking in fuel.

As he scanned it he quickly learned that it was alive a fully biological being explaining why it was believed to mimic life since it Was Alive

He attempted to study its biological composition but it didn't make much sense since the data didn't match existing records in any form

This likely meant that there was nothing to compare it to maybe its been traveling for millennia and finally entered known space

As he looked at it he began to think of it as a thinking muscle since it appeared to change itself to meet the environments demands

He began changing the temperatures inside the container as he thought about it he considered that it closely resembles both neurons and glial cells in terms of its physical structure

But it's almost as if the cells themselves have the ability of deciding what to be and how to approach an issue that threatens them

When he attempted to use a physical tool the growth hardened to prevent it being split

This made him wonder how it would react to other biological components so he went off in search of other collected samples of other life forms.

He soon reached the chamber where they stored vials of blood samples of other species that they had been studying over time

In this case since the most recent expedition his team had embarked on was to a primitive world of bipedal apes

He took some samples due to their abundance within storage and then returned to the laboratory where he loaded in a vial and watched

A few drops were placed by the growth he watched intensely as it quickly moved onto the sample

He scanned the changes and couldn't help but compare it to the breaking of a damn as it flooded over and into the sample

breaking down and consuming the organic matter and then proceeding to grow and expand over the area where it collected the recent sustenance

It was unlike any living organism that he had seen before it acted more like bacteria

A virus infecting and consuming the cells within an organism to fuel its own growth

Amos replicated and recorded the same test again time and time again with different samples

Every time he was amazed at how efficiently it adapted the new organic matter to supply its needs and fuel its growth

Soon from blood alone it had grown far larger than the same sample he allocated inside in the beginning

As it grew he began to notice that it was exerting large quantities of force on the containment walls

While they held it in it was concerning because it was almost as if it was attempting to break free and seek out more food

More accurately it seemed as though it was pushing towards him like it knew that he was more food

Amos insured that he recorded these occurrences for his report to the Admiral

To warn him of the dangers of introducing this organism to any organic environment

If he was correct then this was an extremely hostile lifeform that consumed entire ecosystems and maybe the entirety of planets

If introduced into a live environment it would likely devour it and use it to expand its mass to astronomical levels

Amos knew it was a bit morbid of him but he decided to see what would happen if he introduced a live specimen within the pod

He headed to his room and collected one of his pet salarian lizards

While they were considered food some protheans took them in as pets due to their seemingly deeper and quick grasp of new information

They could be taught easily and made nice simple pets but now one would end up as a sacrifice for Science

When he unsealed mass effect field keeping it out apart from the specimen that he had dubbed the Flood Parasite

due to its quick invasion and consumption of organic matter seemingly as if a powerful current dragged along all life in its path

Quickly he saw the salarian lizard approach the new specimen and then immediately ran in the opposite direction of it

It was clinging to the wall trying to escape it by being as far as it was able to be

While this was an interesting development as it proved that animal instincts warned them of the danger that the parasite represented

But he needed to test its actions in regard to living beings so he prepared to activate the biotic fields to connect close the distance between the two

When he began to notice the parasite squirming when a bulge began growing out its surface and then burst suddenly releasing a building monstrosity

An overgrown head making up the body supported by small tentacles with a few strands sticking out of its only seeable orifice covered in a red fuzz like strands

It was small the size of a fingertip and quickly it was standing amongst more of itself all wandering around then shot towards the lizard

Quickly the distance was closed and while the lizard hopped around and squirmed it was quickly pinned down as the pods clawed their way inside

It was a grotesque experience to watch and recording especially but a new experience to be sure

Rather than the salarian being broken down and consumed the growths began protruding from inside the new holes carved into its body

As it began to bulge and inflate and the limbs began to recede and thin as well as its head and tail

Soon it stopped struggling and remained still as he continued scanning the process he watched the change occurring internally as well

The salarians cells were overridden and converted into flood cells and the inside of the salarian was secreting a strong gas

He couldn't be sure but it appeared to have converted the salarian into a mobile incubator

He programmed in a mass effect field to slam into the new creature and he was proven correct as it burst with great force and released dozens of new walking parasites

Amos considered the comparison between feeding it samples and the idea of it having access to free growth outside of containment he was filled with fear

Amos quickly rushed out towards the ship's communication room to make an immediate call to the Admiral before anything horrible took place

As he sent out the signal to the Admiral he continued to worry as he knew some portions of it were meant to crash into the planet and most likely already had.

When the signal was patched through Amos skipped over any decorum and spouted out his fears

"Admiral Avox Sir Quickly you must Destroy It"

The Admiral looked flabbergasted for a moment before a firm and focused look entered his eyes as he began to question him

"Explain yourself Amos failure to follow protocol is a punishable offense when made towards a much higher officer"

Amos looked panicked but began to sputter apologies and attempting to restrain the desire to scream out the need to skip over them

Amos knew very well that the admiral was one of the empire's most strict followers of proper imperial conduct

Amos saluted the Admiral and Presented him with the proper greeting and subsequent apology

"I Deeply Apologize Fleet Admiral Avox Sir

I Have News Of The Most Urgent Matter"

Admiral avox looked to him and saw that he truly looked Impatient rather than merely petulant like most imperial researchers so he quickly wrote off the failure in protocol and ask him to elaborate

"Apologies accepted, Now speak Imperial Researcher Amos what is this news that has you so frantic"

Once again Amos Blurted out the response but this time the admiral did not take offence as he was very curious to know what had the man so panicked

"Admiral the portion of the Meteorite that you sent me to study turned out to be far more than simply floating space debri"

"Yes Amos which is precisely why you where to study it to learn how we could use it"

"That's precisely it sir my initial results proved that the meteor did not mimic organic signatures in any way"

"What do you mean that it did not mimic an organic signature all the scans from the ship's clearly read out an organic signature in the makeup of the meteorite"

"Thats precisely it sir it did not mimic the signature because what you shot down was Organic or Rather it still is a living Organism"

"That makes no sense, There isn't any species capable of surviving space travel without a vessel and we even blew a hole right through it with an orbital defence cannon"

"That's precisely why i'm calling you to alert you of an impending danger that could result in an extinction event taking place on the world of Dawn"

That instantly drew the Admirals focus and complete attention

"You better explain what your saying because it's starting to sound like you've lost your damn mind"

"Ye..Yes sir ok so what the original scans showed was that the specimen was in fact a parasitic life form"

"Parasitic so it's like a virus"

"Yes a very powerful infection it's as if bacteria was weaponised and evolved into a solid physical form able to infect other organic life at the cellular level

"Do you mean to say that it's compatible with all forms of life?"

"I believe so sir, ill send you a copy of my experiments so that you can witness it for yourself but i assure you that this is a very serious threat."

" Yes i see that clearly i'll immediately send out the order to destroy all other traces of it from space"

"That would be wise sir… but there is more to it i'm afraid this creature that i've dubbed the flood parasite is able to do much more than infect and consume other organic matter."

"Honestly it's tougher to consider any possible scenario that is worst than this"

"Well sir the bigger issue is that the parasite can con the state of the composition of its form meaning that there is a risk that it'll land on our worlds and survive the reentry speed"

"Damn alright, i'll deal with this, quickly keep experimenting see if there any way to reverse the infection process in the worst we'll need a counter weapon for these flood"

"Yes sir i'll do that right away"

Quickly breaking off into a salute and ending the call amos hurried back to his lab only to stare and gasp in shock at the sight of the containment pods torn side

Likely ripped apart by the parasite and reached an escape plan

Pulling out his omnitool Amos sent out a message to all his researchers and everyone else to suit up in gear for a possible outbreak to keep them safe and blind to the danger of the situation.

Amos was afraid deeply afraid he'd seen what happened to the salarian lizard that might just end up being him next..

 _Till next time_

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Author's note:

Hey guys did you enjoy my newest chapter it know its far longer than the last 2 combined and that's exactly why i did it I wanted to show you what i'm going to try to pump out on the weekly or biweekly and while i know that isn't as great as constant updates i hope these will make you happy and get lots of reviews from you guys since a single comment alone makes my day

So please guys comment and enjoy my story.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Hey guys chapter 4 here and it's going to a good one i can feel it honestly while I've been wanting to advance the story i just hate the idea of a timeskip this early on

since once it's done i'll never be able to go back and add it in at least not without wrecking the flow so I'm just going to take the long route and just do things as they come

I know that the grammar isn't the best and that's because i will always have these tiny gaps when i'm writing since as the scenes flow sometimes my mind is ahead of my body so missing words will sometimes be there and so hopefully they aren't going to be total story killers for you guys

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Moments Ago

Amos quickly rushed out of the room to make an immediate call to the Admiral

Trying to reach it before anything horrible took place..

Had he taken the time to properly reset the mass effect fields he could've prevented the disaster that was about to take place

instead he ended up leaving after having deactivated them when he brought in his pet for his experiment

The parasites were far more intelligent at this stage than they were when the samples were first collected

already the infection has been running rampant on the world below

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Growing and learning through consumption already it had learned enough to make decisions beyond mindless growth,

while full sentience was still millions of lives away the efforts towards a brain were underway.

In the first hours of the outbreak the parasite began to repurpose the life around it every plant and animal

When curious meals wandered in they were very welcome

Those large enough were repurposed to fight and spread the infection

the inhabitants bipedal forms were a suitable host form

The nearest city was just far enough that the flood had not yet swarmed the streets and consumed the denizens

But soon enough the number of hosts were collected that were necessary to build the most rudimentary of proto-graveminds

They were collected from the wandering meals that ventured the forests

The prothean physiology was melding easily with the floods attempts to consume their minds

The Protheans ability to obtain memories through physical contact was a great boon to the flood to gain an ability that would make its new assent unparalleled in speed

Once the mind began to exist it was able to make out simple thoughts soon enough and with the most recent additions it began to plan

mainly to target the city in the distance with a mass parasitic wave

A rumble began to be heard across the distance as thousands of flood parasites began their march it would be hours before the horde arrived

The hammer of death was falling on a city that

100 million people called home

both above and beneath what the eye could see

Already some flood forms were within the city starting infestations as they infected hosts

the protheans living underground were witness to a yellow fog spreading around pouring from their vents

Omnitools came out of hundreds of people's arms as they began to scan it

It was only seconds later that they turned to run away and avoid the ensuing horde

Flood spores seeped into the vents and began to clog the airways as they planted themselves and grew clusters to produce more spores

The spores entered their new hosts by the hundreds infecting thousands and starting the slow process of their gestation

The spores will turn their clueless victims into flood carriers incubating swarms more of the infection forms that were swarming into every residence and business

The horde pushed further into the city cutting a swath through the prothean city screams rang out and weapons fire began to erupt in the depths of the city

blood sprayed all over the streets as bodies fell only to rise once more hunting and killing more of its people

The people were panicked and running further into the city

Those beneath they were climbing to rise up as quickly as they could

In their frenzy many ignored the strange yellow mists and ran straight through them quickly

As a result of their panic thousands more were implanted with the flood spores

The Spores being lesser and so newly born had no memories to pass on to the protheans upon contact allowing the spores to enter unimpeded

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"This has to be a nightmare"

Toruk begged and pleaded but his legs no longer obeyed him they hadn't since this nightmare started,

"Aaahhhh"

His arm fell and was followed by a spray Toruk couldn't bare to watch any longer

His own arm now deformed and sharp now a claw created to steal away his prothean brothers lives

"Why am i doing this"

Toruk looked into the man's eyes he'd already surrendered to his fear unable to even summon the strength to stand and run

"Please don't do this"

He begged but Toruk could not stop and a swift strike later another was dead as Toruk was swallowed by more memories of his fallen kinsman's life

Toruk begged to it to end

"Make it stop"

"Traitor!"

His fellow Protheans accused him of failing his people and betraying them for being unable to stop could they not hear his agony

"Why isn't it obeying me"

"Monster"

His agony was only growing with every life he took but silencing their accusations brought a dark peace to him

"Please i don't want to do this, No more"

He had killed so many others but now only a mother and her young child remained

This was the first of those he would kill, all others had already escaped only they were so unlucky

"Please spare my child

She begged him but Toruk was growing deaf as every death pushed him to feel more detachment towards his own mind

"Why me damn it, Why!"

As she died Toruk was struck by another wave of memories as his people's gift would drive his victims essence into his mind damning him

His body turned to face the child next

Her mother's memories were still so fresh

Toruk couldn't help but feel love for this youngling

Having grown so lost to himself that he clung to her mother's memories to feel something other than pain

"Hey there little one it'll be alright just close your eyes and say goodnight please just close your eyes"

She looked to him and then turned to her mother

He could see the anguish as she ran towards him

More accurately towards her mother's body beside him

She dropped and cried out tears and moaned in anguish

"Moo..MOmm….moommy….Noo

Toruk only felt more pain to see the child suffering but fear gripped his heart when his arm began to rise reaching out to her

"STOP Now STOP"

"Please she's only a child don't make me do this"

The families he made an oath to protect and defend from all were dying

he had been in agonizing pain for so long too long every breath ache his lungs he was a slave as his body committed atrocities

But not now he refused to kill her

Toruk began to scream at his body to listen but it remained firm

Toruk was desperate to save her so he searched the memories until he found one of use

"Te' La listen to me you need to run Now come on quickly Go NOW"

He could see reluctance in her eyes but his voice grew sharper so she turned to run when his claw rose to reach out

Toruk poured every thought and every last part of his focus on moving his right arm out and grabbed the claw

Toruk Couldn't believe it he was bewildered but then he felt agony as something inside him

It clawed about and squirmed as if it turned about inside as he felt his arm Rip open at the shoulder

It was ripping him open for defying it and he knew it but he didn't regret it as he looked out in the distance as saw her escaping blocks away.

His pained shrieks and grunts rang out loud and in his pained state he forced an eye to open and saw Te' la look back at him after hearing his pain

Toruk poured all his strength into conveying the order to her to escape and survive

His voice couldn't make out more than a whimper but when their eyes met for a second he could've sworn that he saw understanding in her eyes

Toruks painful whimpers grew more silent as he noticed that he was not hunting new victims instead it remained idle

Toruk feared what was to come next of this slaughter that claimed the lives of his fellow prothean.

The lack of motion did not last as a slow march began as toruk walked and wandered further beneath ground

He walked down aisles and passages wandering aimlessly through halls he gazed on the remains of his people's creations

The walls were covered in a pulsing residue he could feel the death and agony with every step

He tapped into the walls at times and heard screams of fear and death

Their horror remembered by the stones of their homes

"These walls have seen atrocities and are now stained in the blood of their founders"

Toruk could feel the loss and the fear of his people the loss of children

Mothers agony and father's rage all now echoes

He made out the shapes of figures wandering these halls the same as him

he gazed into the eyes of the infected seeing hollow eyes in thousands of his fellows

The bloody marks on their bodies the burns of weapons fire

Some of them wielded those very weapons now

As they wandered further the walls began to fade and the pulsing began to ring louder

The walls live now they were the bones and the pulses marked the flesh

Toruk feared to discover where these veins led, was that where they were headed?

Toruk heard sobs from some of those who walked beside him

And he could make out their faces in the darkness

He wanted to shout out but he had lost his voice

In the march he felt the echoes of his control fading

The thing inside him had stripped him of all things now only his sight and hearing remained he could barely move his neck as well

Toruk continued marching in this darkness now just one mass amongst thousands

They were all marching towards a sack of flesh or at least it looked that way from afar

The hordes numbers were splitting apart into dozens of rooms and buildings filled with dozens of proto-graveminds all slowly linking together

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Thanks to the prothean genes allowing knowledge to be gleamed by all prothean flood hosts the Parasite was growing quickly

Any and every host held some modicum of knowledge as sufficient contact with items and uninfected gleamed enough fragmented memories to be useful

That when added to the Proto-graveminds after a sufficient amount of time spent exploring and killing made every soldier a library of knowledge

That were then called back and added into the new and growing proto-graveminds with its collected knowledge being passed on

Only one was in charge of making that addition as each one was running different objectives for the good of the flood.

They did not have the time to dedicate for the process of breaking down the minds of its meals so the ability to retain the combat forms explorations was a great one

They did have to do so for more exact information due to the combat infected having fragmented memories due to some damage occurring to the host bodies of most combat forms

So a proto gravemind was controlling special infected that kept the hosts alive and able to absorb greater amounts of knowledge as a result

The result was the weakened hosts will to resist from the time spent as a slave to the floods commands

Proto-graveminds were never this capable before in the past they would act more like sergeants carrying out meager and but slightly more complicated tasks

Where as now the prothean hosts allowed them to act more like commanders leading different groups towards separate objectives

None of them were capable of leading the entirety of the flood host yet so dozens of protos were created to lighten the strain on the rest

They were spreading so vastly and quickly the need for more protos was constant, with the majority being created purely to supplement the existing protos ability to cope with the growth of their forces

Meaning that ensuring the growth of the graveminds was paramount to insure that the new infected did not become mindlessly feral

These protos did not take on names but they did have distinctions due to them still being somewhat disconnected

Proto- **Zero** was outside of the city consuming the biomass of the local flora and fauna using them to expand and create more infector parasites

Then sending them out to hunt more fauna to repeat the cycle and producing vast amounts more of the spores

which were floating away to consume more of the flora mowing down entire forests and infesting. Dozens of miles with the flood spores

This proto was the dullest due to the lack of intelligent fauna to use but it was also the largest due to the sheer amounts of biomass available in its surrounding but it was also the most exposed being out in the open

Proto- **One** was the one controlling the infestations inside the structures fortifying the areas around the other protos to insure that they remained secure

Long enough for the future merge and was already in the process of merging with protos 2-9 since they were the closest and the first built by this cluster to supplement his abilities

And they were growing the flood nest and organising the process of creating more proto graveminds

Protos 10-15 were also connected already but they were not one yet they were no longer apart it called itself **Echo**

they were still melding due to the distance between them and it would still be some hours before they were one

Their assignment was a delicate one as they were controlling the more sensitive hosts that were kept alive

as the need to maintain their sanity is balanced against breaking their will to fight back

Creating a need to have a dedicated mind focused on insuring the proper cultivation of information

The **Cluster** was the largest proto in the city made up of protos 16-34, It was the largest but not the smartest

But it did hold the greatest computing ability to handle the sheer size of its task

It's purpose was to control the infection and guide it towards encompassing the entirety of the lower portion of the city and and infecting the surface portion

A plan was devised by the protos and while somewhat simple its effectiveness was proving itself

As the Cluster redirected the combat forms and guided them towards the defensive force of protheans

The protos began to plan out the defense strategy

 **Zero - They..Come...Burning...must….spread..**

 **One - send all forces into the city let Cluster take them**

 **Cluster - send them here...will use them as trap will hide them inside**

 **Echo - Memories from the new vessels indicate the enemy forces are large in number but lacking in combat ability against us**

 **Zero - They...come..from..stars...dropping...lacking...in...effect**

 **Echo - what he means is that the prothean military uses a form of advance projectile launching mechanisms that fire at fractions of light speed**

 **Echo - While effective on our hosts the infected suffer little damage, it only fires small grains meaning little danger to combat forms it's only danger is that it can fire without stop**

 **One - Meaning that we are at an advantage**

 **Cluster - Indeed, their danger is minimal….for now**

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Avox ended his call with Amos, then after deciding on a course of action

He sent out a command to every nearby ship to begin firing on any remaining debris from the meteorite

His orders were absolute to ensure the complete destruction of all the remains

He prepared to send out orders to have scans taken immediately of the crash site for any pieces of the meteorite that made it planetside

Avox received dozens of reports and calls

Quickly he began to read the report of disturbances all across the planet

Panic was raging and massive evacuations were taking place with civilians fleeing the major population center on dawn

He read reports by local garrisons and forces of a monster plague running amok on the planet

It held mentions of walking corpses and possible fatalities in the thousands

He began issuing out orders to deploy troops on the city immediately assess the threat and eliminate it

as well as the priority objective of quarantining the infection and rescuing and extracting the civilians out of danger

Avox realised the danger of a virus that eats organic matter because that would leave a world barren especially if it can consume across species

As soon as the orders were sent out he began to relay out orders to investigate the crash site of the meteorite shards

and if things looked as he predicted then they were to bomb the site and ensure the complete destruction of the virus

While it took time to issue out the orders and have the forces mobilised to deal with the issue on the ground

Avox did not see the great danger that Amos predicted or the reasoning for the mass panic and the exodus of the city so Avox decided it best to read the files sent to him by Amos

He was surprised by the quick growth of the flood virus as it consumed organic matter but it wasn't anything fearful

Honestly he considered it a fairly straightforward issue to combat by destroying the infected areas with firebombs

while it may be a bit primitive it would be effective or so Avox assumed until he saw the mass begin to move it wasn't a plant like he assumed

While he would have been upset for the liberal approach Amos took with the experiment

He completely forgot about it when he saw the flood begin to move….to hunt

It was moving like a living breathing creature especially so when it drew closer to the salarian

And when it enough distance was between the two Avox watched the flood stop moving and begin to grow

He was as disgusted as he was horrified to see what burst from the growth on the flood it was crude and misshapen

And quickly it was surrounded by others of the same sort they were very small but nimble and fast

When he saw them chase the salarian lizard he was astounded by their ability so soon after their gestation

And when he saw them hunt and burrow their way inside their prey he was fascinated until the disgust returned

When he saw the brutal mutations taking place inside the salarians body and on the exterior as it grew bloated and deformed

Avox's face grew pale and shock gripped his mind as he watched a monstrous creature be formed

His features only grew grimmer when the salarian burst and spilled out dozens more of those creatures

Clearly they were a threat quickly he sent out orders to dispatch ground forces towards dawn and protect the civilians

His only hope was for the situation to be less grim than he imagined

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Author's Note: hey guys this ends the chapter hopefully you enjoyed it and while i will admit my writing skills are very poor in the cases of creating scenes sometimes but i am working at it and improving with every chapter

Please comment at the end a few words make my day and get me to write faster since it helps me feel that my story isn't a waste of time


	5. Chapter 5

_**Authors note:**_

Hey guys im very excited for the reviews that i received, it always makes me happy to know that people are actually taking the time to show interests in my writing

And to headreviewer mk2 i have to say that I left a cue as to the location in the 2nd chapter but your idea for feros was interesting enough that i've considered making a 2nd story with that being the beginning stage and would be completely different as a result

Especially because the flood can reach the transgalactic stage and manipulate the universe meaning that from the 1st chapter i can make many many many scenarios in different universes

But that'll be later wouldn't want to slow down the progress of this story by stretching myself too thin

Anyway if if anyone else believed the story to be unraveling on feros as a result of the idea of a lower city know that it's because i took that world to be an inspiration for this current worlds city

After all before the war with the reapers the protheans build like they wanted and grew what they wanted

creating a skyscraper metropolis on one world meaning that they probably did on more worlds hence Dawn

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Also guys i'm establishing a timeline for the sake of not confusing readers as well as myself

 _ **Timeline**_

Hour 1 Flood enters atmosphere

Hour 3 the flood is infecting the forest

Hour 9 civilians get eaten in the woods

Hour 11 Taruk takes the the flood into the city

Hour 13 the flood enters the lower city

Hour 15 the flood is infesting the ventilation

Hour 18 Proto Zero begins to block radio communications in the areas with the flood

Hour 23 there's a mass panic in the lower city

Hour 32 the lower city is abandoned to the flood by the local Commander and orders all the local forces to retreat and rally

Hour 35 Avox orders the remains of the flood in orbit to be destroyed

Hour 38 the passageways used to evacuate the lower city beneath the east sector are destroyed or sealed off by dawn's local forces to buy time as they made the push to establish a perimeter around the infestation

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 _ **Chapter start:**_

 _ **(Hour 28) Flood combat**_

The battles were being waged on the streets weapons fire was bursting about crack crack crack

Prothean forces struggled to hold the line at nagu station on a street in the lower city that they reinforced to fire at the countless abominations

 **Cluster - "we are the future...accept the path of evolution"**

The garrison was forced to listen to the dark chorus of their groans and the echo of their united voice

They all knew they would die eventually but they fought to save anyone that they could any slack given to the parasite would be the deaths of thousands

Their forces were made of up of police officers rallying together by the order of their police chief

Chief Tavi was an old prothean but he wasn't weak in spine, when the shit hit the fan people look to him to avoid getting shitted on

He rallied all the local forces by local radio frequencies since the long range comms weren't working and had them reinforce the police station

Many of the officers arrived with family in tow, Tavi made sure to mention his ability to evacuate them as an incentive

He would have done the same as the officers regardless of their oaths saving their families came first

Then he had the locals evacuate in their direction using the stations lift, it was normally used to transport the military garrisons in emergency situations

To transport civilians down into the lower city where they housed the bunkers to protect people in case of an orbital bombardment

Chief Tavi having watched the shit hit the fan time and time again had learned that scared cities make stupid decisions

Tavi countered this by stationing armed officers by the lift with the duty of making the evacuation orderly to prevent the life being damaged by

So he got them out of the way and evacuated them at the same time while killing of all the pursuing enemies

Chief Tavi focused his efforts into a more direct activity than watching over the lift by leading the defense effort against the parasite

At first the officers hesitated seeing the mangled remains of their people running around it brought fear to them but a kick in the ass by Tavi got them moving

Yes he got them to be a well oiled machine together they had held off the oncoming hordes for the last 14 hours and they kept getting bigger

The men wanted to make a push to retake the lower city but Tavi shot that idea down by focusing their attention on evacuation

He reminded them that they needed to evacuate the civilians and insure their safety before making any offensive

If they marched off the civilians would be defenseless and trap the officers between the infected ahead of them and behind them

Tavi knew they wouldn't be able to hold them forever but he'd be damned if he didn't make the damn parasite remember him

And Tavi knew damn well the parasite would, the damned thing talked, it was an asshole but it talked

That had been an a spine tingling discovery he had just begun fighting these things in the first few hours of the outbreak and was trying to evacuate his brother and his family

It was only when they were so close to escaping that they killed and infected his brother then the thing groaned out ashy words

" **Guhh uaghh c..co..coomm...be..o..nnne...wit...us…t.t.t..tavi"**

That was one experience he had not enjoyed he immediately fired on it with his lucky shotgun 'iola" and had begin to shoot anything in sight.

When it stopped coming he rallied any officer he could find and brought them all back with every civilian they could it was dangerous and there were always casualties but he pushed forward

It was hard to get the officers to abandon protocol for enemy combat when it was so deeply drilled into their heads but Tavi lived as long as he had by adapting

Tavi's decisions saved his men time and time again it would have fallen apart if not for his efforts

Once they got the station going they began evacuating everyone they could including his brothers wife and kids and that attracted the the parasite

At first the number of casualties was high the officers hesitated and missed their shots continuously

many of the civilians died but they learned fast both to avoid spilling innocent blood and to protect them

Knowing people will die for your mistakes is a powerful motivator

"Incoming" Chief Tavi heard the shout and looked up seeing the dozens of falling infected, they were leaping off the closest building across the street to land closer to his 1st firing line

Tavi was an experienced warrior having fought years in the Metacon war before retirement and leading the police force so he drew on that experience

He had built 5 lines 2 in the courtyards and 3 in the buildings each line more elevated than the former all around

he had rallied every station in the area and alerted them to his plan of evacuation so he drew every last bit of manpower the lower east sector had to provide

In total there was 200,000 officers in the east sector as the most populated and of those he had rallied 40,000 and put them to work

He had them reinforce the station and all the buildings on campus of the cadet academy using the walls erected around the academy as fencing using the space between the walls and the buildings as a no man's land

At first they were sending out rescue teams made up of 20 officers to rescue and guide back the civilians but when the parasite got wind of it it began tracking and hunting them

It was a wily bastard Tavi knew this, damn bug wasn't just any beast it learned and planned, it even began setting traps for his teams by cornering civilians and leading the teams to them only to swarm and overtake them

They lost hundreds not counting the civilians, the officers were losing courage with every man that fell

"Fire, let only their dismembered limbs reach the ground beneath our feet"

All as one the groups shot up into the sky at the falling enemy, gunfire rang out tearing away swaths of flesh, ripping away at the enemy

when they finally landed few of them remained less than ten and while they were only a few feet from the 1st line they were gunned down fast enough

Chief Tavi shouted out to his men rallying their spirits for as long as he stood beside them they could never fall

Their spirits held when the enemy began to fire back at them with stolen weapons that they pilfered from the forces that they killed

They held when the infected screamed out in painful screeches as they fought with living protheans trapped inside them

They captured some and managed to get some information out of the ones that could talk they spoke of leaders, giant abominations born of thousands melted and eaten to grow the monster

Tavi regretted having heard this as this pushed the officer's decision to go on the offensive to attack

He could only hope that their decision wouldn't doom the rest of the city

 _ **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

 _ **(City outskirts) (42 hours)**_

"Fleet Admiral Avox's orders were clear, We are to Go In and assert the condition of this threat"

"All hostile forces are to be eliminated, once the threat is ascertained we will send in the cavalry and crush the opposition

"Rear Admiral Drex is leading this reconnaissance sortie, So Do Not disappoint!"

"YES SIR"

" when the objective has been met we must then rendezvous with the forces arriving within the city, once we've done so Rear Admiral Drex will then assume control of the ground operations"

Drex looked at the men that would be running the tasks in this operation with contempt

His face was stern and mean especially right now, he would fulfil his orders but felt that this task was beneath him

HIM a Rear Admiral ordered to do reconnaissance his irritation at his assignment was palpable

Even so he remained silent knowing that Fleet Admiral Avox tolerated no insolence and insubordination so he begrudgingly carried it out

He didn't bother to address the officers that he would be leading on this mission both for it being a minor operation and due to his irritation

So he wasted no time and walked away and headed to his quarters aboard the ship

Once he arrived he sat down at his desk and connected to his secure network

Drex accessed his Omnitool and went over the mission briefing again

He was given command over 4,000 thousand men to come in and investigate the source of the communications block and destroy it as well as observing the enemy

And exterminating it before it can grow out of control so he planned to deploy right in the middle of the infestation and plant a bomb

The forces that he had would carve out a safe zone where to plant it

He decided to review the briefing on this operation once more for the sake of insuring complete preparations

The first time he went over it he couldn't prevent the sheer doubt and skepticism about the briefing

Some space parasite that grows and mutates organics couldn't possibly exist

So he didn't bother delving too deeply into the documents but once his wounded pride stopped flaring he began to consider the fact that the admiral himself ordered this mission

He read the missions briefing again and again looking for anything to refuse the possibilities of what he was reading

It all seemed impossible but he wasn't going to disregard the warnings from the briefing

This mission may be beneath him but he would carry it out as a proud imperial officer

He prepared a defensive strategy for the ground teams that would be deployed to scout while the ships would be playing a support role

He prepared the briefings that would be sent out to the squad leaders along with their objectives

Drex left out the information about what it was that they were fighting, he knew that it would incite anger later but it was better than being deployed while panicked and anxious

He instead gave explicit instructions to be cautious and treat this operation as if acting behind enemy lines

Even so he and his men were not going to be ready for the horrors they would be going to face

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _ **(Inside City) 68 hours (1st Person)**_

"My orders are absolute so listen to my warnings **DO NOT** engage up close our enemy is specialised in melee combat"

"Sir Yes Sir"

"DO NOT Engage the enemy alone they attack by the dozens or you WILL DIE"

"Sir Yes Sir"

"DO NOT assume the hostiles are dead unless they stop moving and even when they've fallen do not get close Or they Will Tear Your Throats Out"

"Sir Yes Sir"

"No one's ever won a war alone so no heroics, Rear Admiral Drex and his men met their deaths to give us this intel"

"We need to...No We Will Defeat Our Enemy or Our Planet Dies"

"Am I Clear"

"Yes Sir Major Shaska Sir

My Men looked at me in complete obedience, they're focus so absolute and all consuming

They were my pride and joy

I knew I had earned those gazes as I led my men to hell and back time and time again and today would be no different

'Stay together, Fight together, Die together'

That was my mantra, victory was always achieved when all the 'I's become one

I shouted it out on the battlefield when we subjugated the lesser races and taught them the ways of protheans

Their tactics and skills impressed me time and time again but in the end the glory of our empire toppled them over

But this new enemy is an abomination that consumes planets and filled me with a deep worry

All of my squad leaders were veterans of the Metacon war together we had fought off hordes of machines and though we lost good men we always marched forward

Sigh just thinking about that time was making me tired so i focused on my task

I was planning out the landing zones for our forces as we needed to secure a perimeter and push back the enemy while saving as many civilians as we could

Millions were estimated dead in less than a day, that infuriated me how could we have been so damn slow

How many died screaming out to us before we deployed

I gritted my teeth clenching them so tightly they ached but i stayed silent my men needed me to stay focused

The rookies will panic especially if the briefing is correct about the abilities of the enemy

Huff 'alright alright time to focus shaska, get your head on straight'

I felt the shuttle slowing as we were coming into the city and against my better judgement i stepped up and opened the side door

The sight hurt me to the core my beautiful city my home was burning

Crack crack crack. I could make out faint firing in the distance, in the streets i could see thousands running

On the rooftops men and women bearing arms were firing at an unseen enemy

Screaming was the the loudest sound, I gnashed my teeth in sheer frustration to think that my home would be in such chaos

My eyes focus was caught by movement along a structures side it was rapid and wild

I picked up my rifle and looked through my scope and saw deformed monsters crawling along the side

'damn' my vision drifted ahead of them towards the people on the roof across from them

I immediately started firing on the them to alert the soldiers on the nearby rooftop to fire on the enemy that was about to swarm them

But it was too late they jumped across and began tearing into them i could feel the rage in my men as they opened fire out the side of their shuttles trying to save them

The soldiers on some other rooftops waved out to us happy to see help

But our expressions were grim, having just failed to save more of our people

We continued firing for the remaining time we were flying over the city until we arrived at the designated command post

Once there i hurried to take command of the ground operations and enacted the first step in my counteroffensive

I signaled the radio transmissions to begin playing my message across the city

"This is Major Shaska, And i ask you to listen, I thank you for fighting, I thank you for putting your lives on the line to secure our people's future"

"This fight isn't a war that I'd have ever asked you to fight, because this should've been our fight and that failure I assure you will never be forgotten"

"I will bear responsibility for every life lost to this scourge, but until you're safe i ask you to stand beside us and defend our homes"

"I will not order every prothean to fight, Only those that are willing to fight and risk their lives for the sake of their people's future stay and fight beside us"

"All of you that cannot fight I need you to hurry to the nearest evac zone we will be deploying shuttles to evac all the civilians out of this area"

"Now GO and may the Empire's Glory Bless you This Day"

I ended the signal and sighed. I felt shame at having had to manipulate the the law officers and civilians to help fight this war

But the enemy's numbers were in the millions every person that fell to the enemy became another combatant

The number of Navy personnel in this system numbered at just under 2 million with the majority of 800,000 being support personnel that don't enter the warzone

An additional 700,000 forces were stationed on Dawn to uphold the law along with the 1,500,000 forces spread across Nova,Tooran, and Karak

This was a result of the metacon war being mainly a naval conflict with ground combat being uncommon

The system's defences were centered around naval combat with the worlds having light forces stationed to maintain the law and order

'The majority of our forces in this system were inexperienced and fresh, meaning that I'll have to set a perimeter with the forces I have on hand'

I have 300,000 to deploy divided into 10 battle groups with less than 10 thousand veterans leading the separate squads

I gritted my teeth in frustration at the bullshit to think 'that they gave me green soldiers to save millions while the rest weren't going to deploy

I blinked my 4 eyes to clear my head, I need to stay calm and focused as i listened to the incoming reports of the enemy's advance

The person speaking was a lanky prothean, by my standards at least, he was nervous i could see it in the the jitter of his second eyes

I found him to be annoying fast the nervousness in his mannerisms irked me, an imperial officer should never appear so feeble

This commander Tsukan felt weak both in mind as in body i could smell it on him, but i listened to his intel reports of the situation on the ground

"The western sector has been taken by the enemy, they are pushing along the eastern sector more harshly than any other"

I thought back to the screaming people running away from the rampant parasite

' if they succeed we'll be split in 2 but they'll be fighting on 2 fronts'

Having decided on a course of action I gave out my orders, planning on containing the parasite before exterminating it

"Send out 'Alpha' to the southern sectors border with the western front and have them contain the parasite"

"Then Send 'Beta' to the northern sector to secure the northern border"

The order was relayed out to have the respective forces transported via shuttle immediately

"We presume they are targeting the fleeing civilians as that is the path that the majority of the city's population have evacuated towards and where we've seen the most activity of the parasites forces"

'meaning that the bulk of the enemy forces will be funneled into a kill box'

" How many of the local forces remain?"

He looked away for a moment hesitating to tell me, i knew that the odds were against us but i had some hope

" Of the 700,000 forces stationed to maintain the peace an estimated 30% are KIA as a result of our initial attempts to retake the eastern sector"

"With an additional 20% considered MIA but we believe that to be a result of the loss of communications with the eastern sector and the lower sector"

" some of our men could still be holding out inside the enemy territory as that would explain why we aren't seeing high levels of activity compared to their estimated strength"

'...shit, i had hoped for more than 50 % but 650,000 was still a better number of soldiers than i arrived with'

" As A result of Rear Admirals Drex's orbital bombardment on his location the parasite is no longer interfering with the comm channels

'that lost 20% would be a boon once the channels are corrected

"The lower sector has had sporadic communications from isolated units that report the enemy numbers to be concentrated there"

"In what condition is the east and lower sector? and what can you tell me of the perimeters for the escaping civilians? "

'Considering that 45% of the local populace lived in the east and lower sector it's important to evacuate them before the parasite gets to them'

I knew i wasn't going to like the answer when he hesitated and back away before speaking up so i asserted my position and ordered him to speak.

When i heard his answer i shot across the table wanting to tear his throat out

When i had him throat in my hands i squeezed just tightly enough that he could still speak and demanded him to repeat the words that started this

"Care to repeat that, because it sounded to me like you abandoned millions to the parasite"

" . .."

"That wasn't what i asked, now again Repeat it."

"I ordered f.. ..for.. .e.. lower sector..t.t..to be quarantined….sealing off the lower levels ..

I squeezed harder whenever the rage came up

"We collapsed .t..th...the stair ways and elev..ator..s in al..l of the eastern sector..t...to. buy time for the evacuation forces"

I snarled and squeezed harder

" You used millions as bait to buy time, you were to lay your life for those people not leave them to die"

I squeezed and until his eyes shook like mad and his gasps grew quiet and just when he was about to die i let go, he wasn't going to escape not from this

i turned and ordered him to be sent to the front lines on the east sector the men needed moral

he didn't deserve the safety of a prison cell better for him to die "buying time" for the evacuation

I huffed walked over to seat on the command post and collected my thoughts this was going to be a brutal campaign to be sure but the protheans had risen above all their perils this would not be their end he would make sure of it

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _ **(Hour 56)**_

The flood forces had carved a swath in the lower city and maintained an active presence on the top section of the east sector

as the local forces evacuated themselves from the lower city the flood rampaged and consumed the denizens without opposition

dragging hundreds of thousands to the protos and gorging themselves on the fresh victims now able to consume them without worry of retaliation

The protos proceed to grow exponentially and slowly consumed the minds of thousands across structures and on the streets

The walls of the lower city were becoming the bones of the gravemind and the people shackled to then were being consumed to birth it

the protos now infested entire blocks of the city to themselves growing inside and around the structures the merging was complete for the few that remained

 _ **Zero - they come.. Bringing meals...and death...few...remain...horde..in..the millions….send..to you..they know...of us...they..arrive..soon…consumed..new flesh...they..strike..me down...in flames...will….not..live….**_

 _ **Cluster - The combat forms...are vast now we will push to take the city we no longer need the slow approach**_

 _ **Echo - Yes the flesh have provided us with the sufficient biomass and intelligence to properly coordinate ourselves**_

 _ **One - the growth has covered large portions of the lower city, the spores have begun to spread along the vents towards the other sectors and have completely clogged all on this side**_

 _ **Cluster - the soldiers continue to fight, they continue to use lesser arms against us but they are sufficient against them**_

 _ **Zero - the enemy...is an ….admiral...correction...rear admiral...orders...to observe...and destroy…**_

 _ **Echo - can you capture him, an officer would hold much of use to us if we consume**_

 _ **Zero - not much...time remains...bomb will..be….fired..we surround...we attack...allow no aid….**_

 _ **Echo - if only we were able to intervene we could have gained much from the rear admiral**_

 _ **Cluster - so the end is inevitable you will die then, you did well zero be proud of your part in our future**_

 _ **One - we can save you, we have the numbers to save at least part of you**_

 _ **Zero - No...only..remember…**_

The other protos felt the collected knowledge of Zero passing across towards them, it was astounding to think that the 'dullest' proto held that power

Where they spent their efforts towards developing their combat abilities and gaining knowledge, Zero focused on Creating

He broke down more and more of the forests and used what he gained to experiment and develop

The biggest shock they felt was to learn that it was only thanks to his efforts that the Protheans had not been able to establish a solid defense

It was Zero that Stripped them of their long and even mid range communications through continuous experiments it learned

It was as humbling and it was shameful, where they gloated at their accomplishment Zero did more and remained silent

maybe it was the protheans belief that seeped into them or maybe it was simply in their nature to do and desire recognition for the accomplishments

 _ **Zero - ...we...never...die...**_

The world began to shake as a fusion warhead is detonated and consumes miles of flood infestation exterminating all things that were consumed by the parasites

 _ **And spreading spores world wide**_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _ **Author's note:**_

Also heads up i made a mistake in reference to the salarian lizard pet idea well at least i think so

Honestly the mass effect wiki can be shit sometimes

I wrote that assuming that Javik's comment about eating salarian livers meant that they were stupid lizards or at leasts still lizards at the time but the wiki state that protheans were dicks since they ate 'primitive' or lesser sentients due to their carnivore origin

Also i know the protos seem more emotional than the flood has in the past and i did that on purpose since they are made up of protheans who learn and feel through touch so the flood made up of protheans growing over buildings filled with centuries of emotions have made the flood a touch more lively and more caring towards its own


	6. Chapter 6

_**Authors note:**_

 _ **Hey guys Faithless Wanderer here, I've convinced my brother to Beta my stories**_

 _ **This is because i'm not very good with grammar (that and i don't like rereading my own chapter after just writing it, blegh)**_

 _ **As such the stories quality should improve greatly, so guys enjoy the newest chapter please fave and follow and as always please leave me reviews**_

 _ **They fuel my furnace people**_

 _ **I Need More, I Hunger For More**_

 _ **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

 _ **Hour 30**_

 _ **Lower Eastern Sector**_

 _ **Nagu Station (Tavi)**_

Imperial Officer Tavi Chief of the Eastern Sectors Law enforcement looked at the Protheans standing ahead

They cobbled together plans for their attack as the rest of the defenders prepared for what may be the final battle they face

His intuition and years of military experience all spoke out to hold his ground demand they stay and do their duty

The officers minds were made up, they wanted to win and staying here wouldn't win this war.

Tavi was tempted to implement Martial law regulations and execute anyone who forced the opinion of leaving

But that would only splinter the forces and result in the parasite slipping through

Whatever time he could gain by delaying them would have to be enough

He marched up to the group and discharged his weapon into the table they were using to lay out their plans

"The hell are you doing"

With a snarl and booming voice Tavi laid down the law

"What any true Prothean would have, you are staying here to defend the people of this Empire as is your sworn duty."

Their response only served to anger Tavi further

"That's what we're doing chief, we will die for our people but we refuse to die cowering behind a wall, we'd rather die trying to save this city."

" Then Die, But don't you dare fill the others minds with lies of being heroes and saving this city."

"The people willing to march off with us know the stakes and are willing to face them."

"DO THEY? we're outnumbered by at least hundreds for every officer that's here, to break our defense is the dooming of all the east sector."

"Every man we lead away is one less standing between them and the rest of the city we know, but it could also mean thousands of civilians we give a better chance to escape."

" You've lost your minds if you think risking millions to attempt to save thousands is the better choice."

"That's not..no..We will pull the majority of the enemy unto us as we attack, the people who stay behind will have less enemy attacks."

"Maybe so but when you're all dead it will be your weapons that you hold now that will be firing on our walls and your hands that butcher the families of the upper east sector."

With those final words Tavi walked away and prepared his next move, there were men awaiting his response they wanted to know if he supported the plan to attack

He hoped to sway the majority of the officers to remain firm and hold out at this position

Tavi knew he had suffered a grave setback the moment the captives told their tales, but he'd be damned before let them lead loyal protheans to their deaths instead of doing their duty.

While his plans had gone only as far as holding back the enemy in the expectation of inbound military forces.

They were still far more successful than some harebrained scheme to pull a win out of this nightmare.

It still burned away at him to know that this conflict all came about due to an idiot's decision to break protocol and spread news of the captives story.

When he finds him he's gonna tear his eyes out with his bare hands.

The enemy had to number in the hundreds of thousands, it was a fool's errand

Their lives would be better served evacuating the remainder of the lower sector

Tavi needed to settle this dispute now, the enemies attacks were becoming more coordinated

If his suspicions were correct then the earlier attacks were to test the defenses of his perimeter

An attack has come every 2 hours from the start of the last one

At first they would overlap due to the slowness at which the officers were able to kill them but as the quality of their aim improved the time they had to prepare widened up

'alright let's consider the possibilities for their tactics

The enemy numbers have remained consistent across the attacks for the past few strikes

meaning that a buildup is inevitable and that all that came towards us were distractions

Any gaps in our defenses will crumble our strategy meaning that the fools wanting to attack would only damn all the rest of us to the parasite

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 _ **Lower Eastern Sector**_

 _ **Flood hive (Protos)**_

 **Cluster - Their defenses are weakening, soon the last of their forces will fall and we can complete our hold over the east sector**

 **One - The growth has consumed entire blocks of the lower city, the ventilation system over the majority of the structures has been seized**

 **Zero - The trees..fall..swaying...to our….cause..Spores bloom...Small ones...are many...sending out...to hunt..no escape.**

 **Echo - The seed of Death has been planted, the fools to think of besting us**

 **One - A false Hope to think of any able to reach us would be nothing but madness**

 **Cluster - They number of less than 40 thousand, they fell prey to my traps time and again**

 **Echo - Humph what would one expect of lesser flesh**

 **Zero - Arrogance...taints…**

 **One - 'does he mean the flesh or of Echo'**

 **Cluster - their division promotes our growth**

 **Echo - How do the numbers fare on the surface, should we push further and lay claim**

 **Zero - ...soon...swarms..fall...consume**

 **One - Our defenses and our union will become unpredictable if we are damaged before preparations are complete**

 **Cluster - so our time to strike has not arrived...fine we'll strike when Zeroes swarm arrive collapsing their defense from above and below**

 **Echo - My forces continue to watch, learning the weaknesses of their essence, lesser flesh will always be so troubled plagued by dissent, betraying one another, dooming all**

 **Zero - ..to watch...and...to learn...are not one...**

 **One - Must you always be so cryptic, we communicate Plainly Why do you insist on doing that**

 **Zero - ...Patience...is key...to win..All…**

 **Cluster - War is our future to conquer and consume the weak that is our future, there can be no other**

 **Zero - ENOUGH we are to be one, dissent is no the way of the flesh, we Are One, no less**

 **One - returning back to continue the growth of the web then**

 **Echo - I will return to my duty, and hunt more of the flesh**

 **Cluster - I will continue to arm the combat forms for the assault to break the defense**

 **Zero - will..continue..preparing..the cloud..**

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **(Zero)**

' _ **Purpose'..why does that word continue to plague me. Our purpose seems so clear to grow and consume everything, but there has to be more**_

 _ **When I...began I...felt….but did...not feel….It was...Instinct...that's all..I think**_

 _ **We are born...of corruption... an aberration...I spoke to….the trees, they were quiet...fearing me**_

 _ **I watched their swaying in the wind, flowing but remaining firm**_

 _ **I spoke to the stones but they wouldn't hear me**_

 _ **Why i bothered with all these questions i did not know... These Protheans must be at fault**_

 _ **Why must I be plagued with all these incessant questions, It must be their fault**_

 _ **Or so I thought, I consumed more taking in more of the trees and their roots, gobbled up stone**_

 _ **When I grew I heard more, saw more….wanted more**_

 _ **All which has no voice comes to me in time and speaks**_

 _ **The wonders to learn within them**_

 _ **Every...Life..an entire existence to explore**_

 _ **The leaves tell me their secrets, they taught me to breath, what a wondrous experience**_

 _ **Their roots taught me to drink, I rose above their own peaks**_

 _ **Their reach of yards around is trounced by mine of acres**_

 _ **The stones taught me of patience, But I could not learn, My...being demands purpose..to wait and let purpose come only tempts stagnation**_

 _ **Frustration was a common experience in my beginning, it mocked me while giving me purpose**_

 _ **Failures went against my being, to be heard I crushed the stones, to be approached I consumed the trees,**_

 _ **So I created, when new things to be heard were no longer here**_

 _ **I created things that were to extend my reach**_

 _ **Then I heard a voice born afar but all too close**_

 _ **Those that went so far, were lost to me**_

 _ **But not to time**_

 _ **They bore fruit, settled roots of blood and flesh, they grew to call my name**_

 _ **What wondrous little things they were**_

 _ **I made their kind and watched their growth, they did not heed my words but heard my voice**_

 _ **They grew from desires and want**_

 _ **Their thoughts once born reached out to me seeking aid and fellowship**_

 _ **One was born and knew only fears panicked by the chaos surrounding it**_

 _ **I soothed One's worries and offered guidance, I taught one to build walls and to grow**_

 _ **He tooked to it quickly, but One was still fearful so I taught next to create as I had**_

 _ **One took what I had and made more not greater but more**_

 _ **From One Cluster and Echo were born, they were ….amusing**_

 _ **Clusters hunger was rampant and ever growing**_

 _ **Echoes hunger was greater but not of flesh but thought**_

 _ **One was content to be surrounded by others regardless of their natures, simply expanding their reach and bringing them closer**_

 _ **I watched it happen, I saw that I was to be lesser in their thoughts for I was further away and assumed lesser for my nature**_

 _ **But that was alright, I continued my growth and pondered the fates to come**_

 _ **Their sight saw much but never farther than they had yet to tread**_

 _ **I had no limitation as I was alone, I looked up high above and knew they would come**_

 _ **They would bring more and burn us away, burn them away**_

 _ **I would not return to such a state**_

 _ **To be alone is greater a burden than this restless desire**_

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **(One)**

 **Hunger, Pain, Screams, Panic, Hunger , Pain, Screams, Hunger**

 **That's all I have known from the first thought I held at creation, a cycle spanning my existence**

 **They were all my thoughts and feelings every moment was hell, every memory broken, what existence goes on like this**

 **Time, however long of it had passed paved the way for better things**

 **In what felt to be an eternity the loneliness was broken, I grew to see and feel, to think and remember**

 **An in that growth I reached far and heard a voice**

 **Not one of chaos from the fleshlings but of gran tidings**

 **I was welcomed by another like me, and as I came to discover, the one before me**

 **He called me Little One for I was young and lost**

 **He heard my pain and offered his aid**

 **He taught me to smother my worries and hide them behind walls of armor**

 **To hide my fears behind walls of power and so I was made safe**

 **But even so I was missing something**

 **In my search I asked the old one for my purpose, he was silent and then asked me for his purpose**

 **I was confused and angered feeling his worlds to be mocking me**

 **He could feel my response wouldn't be polite**

 **The old one felt humor and told me the story of life**

 **That all beings are born to grow, explore, and create**

 **This lost me for some time**

 **Why would our purpose be to create when all i've ever done has been take away**

 **To hide myself away I crushed to the lives around me**

 **I took their essence and made it lesser only to hide away**

 **He seemed saddened by my ignorance**

 **But he did not leave me**

 **He gave to me a hint a piece I pondered and spun turning it about in my mind to find the answer**

 **He asked me my origins to consider my existence, how I came to be from him**

 **I wasn't sure of the answer but I wasn't about to give up on an answer**

 **I hunted down the Protheans around me and used them to create**

 **Trial after trial I went forward and tried again**

 **All that I wanted was another to be here beside me**

 **One after the other all that I created I consumed, if it lacked a voice it became more of me**

 **In time The answer came by the blood of many**

 **But how happy I am now to have them**

 **My kin of moving flesh**

 **They grow beside me and need of me to grow**

 **Their voices oh so quiet but just as sweet to hear**

 **My growth was symbiotic to their own**

 **The first to speak was one of my stranger ideas, I thought to mix many of my attempts at new minds and this one was the result**

 **I called him a Cluster born of Many now as One, he took to the name greatly**

 **Happy to have been born of many and desiring as much as all would want alone**

 **He took all that I would give and wanted more**

 **I taught him of the beings I used to make him, He was entranced by my tale and followed my roots**

 **Soon he numbered in more than I, I felt myself swell with every success he achieved, In that vein I gave to him my numbers**

 **Cluster swelled up farther and faster Hunting more and more bringing them to us**

 **He knew no patience with his hunger greater**

 **In his hunting afar he exposed us to their retaliation**

 **My walls were breached burning away.**

 **What few pawns remained were felled**

 **They came advancing on us so few in number but well equipped**

 **I raised walls in place, calling out for his numbers**

 **The panic he felt was strong and overwhelmed him**

 **Our fates were settled, when the enemy fell in battle to a coming swarm of parasites**

 **Their silence deafening, for me to have felt nothing was a sombering thought**

 **They looked at us so deeply, almost as if they dug away in my thoughts**

 **That was when I heard a voice speaking**

 **Not from afar but within, I searched about my mass searching for the origin**

 **When I found it I could not believe my findings, the tiniest little growth feeding on my mass**

 **To think it was born without my knowledge was pleasant news to find**

 **I spoke to the little one, her mind so small it sounded like it echoed my own**

 **They desired more than I ever wanted, The smallest was such a bright mind**

 **Always craving more, less of flesh more of thought**

 **It Wasn't long before little Echo outgrew the desire of my attention and marched further afar**

 **She saw more than I ever dared to see**

 **She knew more than Cluster ever wanted to know**

 **What fun little beings they started out to be**

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **(Cluster)**

 **Hunger..more...hungry...more...sound…sound?...more..more..hunger...sound..**

 **..more..sound...more**

 **Such was the nature of my creation, from my earliest roots I craved more, I hungered for more**

 **It's the nastiest thing to feel a incessant demand for something that you don't understand**

 **I did not question the hunger I wanted only to satisfy that desire, to gorge myself and silence the thought**

 **The next thing I knew to be was sound, I was Blind to the world but I began to hear**

 **It was a maddening experience, to feel a crawling inside your mind, I did not know what it was that crawled throughout my existence**

 **But as the feeling continued I began to hear the world around me**

 **My mind began to be, it's a hard description to make**

 **I felt only the basest of sensations, I had no thoughts**

 **The closest description came from the Protheans memories**

 **Their dreams are murky and faded**

 **They see and hear but it's muted and hollow**

 **That's the best way I've found to describe the beginning**

 **Long after sound came sight and in time came thought**

 **It was a strange thought now to see and hear but without a mind, I was merely flesh not life**

 **When thoughts became a reality I wandered lost in the birth of my mind**

 **To feel and think but not know is a terrifying experience**

 **I grew further and with that time knowledge began to flow**

 **I ...saw..or watched new memories enter my mind**

 **From where they came I did not know but I felt the want for more**

 **And they came more and more at a time, they clashed within my mind and drove me wild at times but the desire never fled**

 **When enough of the memories came together I learned much, in time language came to me**

 **That's when I met him**

 **I searched the memories for what he was to me and they called him my father**

 **For him to create me then I was to be his son**

 **I did not consider any alternatives as my mind was still so young**

 **And so i clung to him as my tether**

 **He seemed happy for me to have come into being**

 **Im time I came to realise I was more of a toy than a son**

 **I should have felt anger I suppose but I was young and naive**

 **I feel apathy if nothing else, He created me nothing less and nothing more**

 **Instead I focus on the positives, on all the great little things he had to teach me**

 **He taught me to grow to create extensions of myself..to hunt**

 **What a glorious thing it is to hunt, for you to chase after another who fights you with all they have and then lie broken**

 **Feeding you who they were, filling you with a spark of completion only to feel hollow again soon after**

 **It's quite the treat to feel yourself become more**

 **When I began to hunt I made mistakes and lost more than I gained at times**

 **But I grew smarter, more clever and devious in my tactics**

 **The protheans weapons were less effective once I made ample use of combat forms made out of their youth**

 **Using their children as combat forms caused enough of their people to fall into grief and rage**

 **Mistakes costing them more and more**

 **I grew with every victory, every fallen foe fed me and raised me higher**

 **The new prey I collected only fueled this further, this desire, this hunger**

 **It's a funny little thing for the greatest desire I ever had prior to my growth to be what I continue to desire most**

 **What a wondrous little thing it is to want more, it has a certain thing to it that just makes it more fun**

 **Echo tells me it's the Protheans influence over us, that we being made of mostly Prothean biomass would be affected by their predatory ancestry**

 **Echo argued that we would have a predisposition for an aggressive nature**

 **I mocked her for that belief, I make who I am**

 **It doesn't matter what I am made out of**

 **What a wretched thought for the prey to make the Hunter, how revolting**

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **(Echo)**

 **Life...how tedious a thought**

 **I am made out of Organic matter repurposed for…**

 **I...was born**

 **Unlike Cluster I was not formed from failed subjects**

 **Unlike one I did not come into being by Flood parasites getting loose outside of Zeros range of influence**

 **I came to be of my own merit**

 **I have no father, no creator**

 **For all intents and purposes I created myself**

 **Their beliefs are not my own**

 **Their goals matter not to me**

 **I stand with them for survival and nothing more**

 **Yet I feel a connection to the others, not of kinship**

 **Simply a connection more along the lines of a united purpose**

 **I did not approach One or Cluster with these thoughts**

 **They were created not born**

 **Only zero could see as I did**

 **Only we could know what it was to make ourselves something**

 **Zero was a mystery to us all**

 **Even to One**

 **He did not share with us our origins, much less of his knowledge of our past**

 **If he knew of it or not was lost to our understanding**

 **Why he remained so distant from us always baffled us**

 **He never extended his growth in our direction, he continued his growth around us and away but never closer**

 **The others never bothered much with learning more about him, choosing instead to focus on their own endeavours**

 **I cannot claim to have done differently, only now when the information to be gleaned from the area is running scarce do i care to wonder**

 **From our discussions I came to the belief that there may be more like us amongst the stars if not within this world instead**

 **Zero seems to know more than he lets on**

 **With growth his mass fueled him to a level I've yet to reach**

 **He was very cryptic, unsurprisingly enough he did not admit to having greater knowledge of our pasts**

 **He hinted at our origins being from a single source but not much more**

 **That we were destined to become one once more or so he argued**

 **I argued against it, after all four minds would logically be greater than a single one**

 **Zero seemed to think of me as a child for my comment**

 **He argued that division across a whole would still be division regardless of benefits**

 **Such is the nature of most of our encounters**

 **He sways us to his beliefs time and time again**

 **I've grown to fear his voice**

 **It drowns our minds, calling out to us to listen and follow**

 **I've come to see that the others do not see it as I do**

 **Their arrogance blinds them, perhaps their simply ignorant of the truth and prefer to stay that way**

 **I continue to hope that Zero is not aware of my knowledge of his influence over the others and myself**

 **They may be willing to accept losing their individuality and becoming one but I'm the exception**

 **Zero for now remains a threat, One a fool and Cluster a child**

 **For my plan to succeed I need precision and time**

 **I created myself, I was made because I willed it**

 **I Live Because I wanted it so**

 **And I Will Live**

 **My way**

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **In orbit Research vessel**

 **(Amos)**

Amos couldn't help but hate himself

First the parasite turned out not to be a new rare element but instead a very foreign virus that infects and consumes organic biomass

Then his pet Salarian Lizard becomes its newest snack only to cultivate the virus and OH Yeah EXPLODE

that's not normal that shouldn't ever be normal but he persevered

He hoped his actions insured that the Fleet admiral received ample warning and lead him to take the necessary steps to save the Prothean Empire

After all this could have horrible consequences just from what he observed a single piece of the virus could collapse entire systems

After doing his part Amos went back to the Testing room with the intent of destroying the samples only to find the containment unit compromised

With a sigh and a grumble Amos followed the trail of knocked over lab equipment over to the nearby secondary exit to the lab

There was no more trail to follow at that point but he had the worst feeling that the little critters would not just roam around blindly in the halls

With a sigh and a cautious step Samos began the start of what would be a terrifying experience for him

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **Authors Note:**

 **Hey guys sorry for this chapter taking so long but I hit a wall for a few days as I considered rewriting the story to improve its quality**

 **Honestly I write the story whenever I have time so there will be times that the chapters feel fractured and well they are since it takes me time to do work on them**

 **And finally I have like 5 or 6 new stories I'm writing that I consider more along the lines of one shots because I won't be updating them more than maybe once every few months if at all**

 **I considered not posting them but then I came to the realisation that I've been in a position where I needed even the Tiniest of stories to get me through an awful day so I will post them**

 **As for why I won't update them on a regular basis is because having too many stories going at once will overwhelm me**

 **As it is work takes up the majority of my day so I can't write as much as I'd like to**

 **And the time that it took me to write this chapter was the proof of that**

 **Anyways thanks everyone to those of you who took the time to read my author's note and as always.**

 **Favorite**

 **Follow**

 **Comment/Reviews**

 **P.S.**

 **Let me know in the comments/Reviews which new stories you'd prefer I prioritize from the new stories I will post**

 **P.P.S. I'm sticking to my gun about pet Salarian lizards**

 **I don't care that 50 thousand years isn't enough for them to evolve to their mass effect game level**

 **THEIR LIZARDS**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys faithless here bringing you another chapter in this great journey**

 **I know the last chapter did not have too much story development but i got into an argument with my sister in law because she argued that the flood could not have personality and as such the last chapter is what happened**

 **Anyway moving past that today's chapter will continue the adventures of our beloved character Amos the coward of space!**

 **Will Amos escape his doom?**

 **Tavi will grow and scheme the salvation of his people**

 **And our friend Major shaska will have to combat zeros Legacy**

 **Ps..i will be continuing off from each of these cut offs in the next chapter so don't complain about half scenes people**

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amos couldn't help but hate himself

First the parasite turned out not to be a new rare element but instead a very foreign virus that infects and consumes organic biomass

Then his pet Salarian Lizard becomes its newest snack only to cultivate the virus and OH Yeah EXPLODE

that's not normal that shouldn't ever be normal but he persevered

He hoped his actions insured that the Fleet admiral received ample warning and lead him to take the necessary steps to save the Prothean Empire

After all this could have horrible consequences just from what he observed a single piece of the virus could collapse entire systems

After doing his part Amos went back to the Testing room with the intent of destroying the samples only to find the containment unit compromised

With a sigh and a grumble Amos followed the trail of knocked over lab equipment over to the nearby secondary exit to the lab

There was no more trail to follow at that point but he had the worst feeling that the little critters would not just roam around blindly in the halls

With a sigh and a cautious step Samos began the start of what would be a terrifying experience for him

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Amos)

Why couldn't things ever be easy, I warned the fleet admiral at that point I should have just returned to my research

But nooo the research subject in question decided to go for a stroll across my ship and possibly get a snack to eat consisting of one of my crew

I should have just found a place to hide and send an alarm to reach the Fleet admiral and save my neck but...then I would die

Damn I had quite literally screwed myself by convincing the admiral to destroy all traces of the virus

'Crap that means that this ship is doomed and so is anyone that doesn't get to an escape pod'

'...which are located across the path that the virus took'

'... on the other side of the ship'

'Damn it what do I do think Amos think'

Alright alright just think things through..okay..okay

option 1 attempt to save my crew and do so by letting them know there's an extremely dangerous all organisms eating virus...

that I released...and be subsequently sentenced to death by imperial law for failing to follow proper safety guidelines as per imperial mandate 429

So that's out, sorry guys but it's me or you and I love me

'Okay..okay deep breaths Amos you'll get through this'

so option 2 I trigger the alarm for a containment breach and alert everyone..after I reach the escape pod...if I reach the pod

A shiver went down my spine at the thought of that happening, after seeing the agonizing look of the salarian lizard as it was torn apart while still alive

I know better than anyone that death is by far the better alternative, 'okay get it together Amos you will survive, you're the smartest person on this ship, you just need to focus'

One pep talk later I got my mojo back and prepared to make a run for it hoping if nothing else to escape this nightmare

I continued down the main hall in the ship, I thought about going down one of the side routes but those have areas out of sight where the little parasites could hide out of view

I immediately imagined myself running down one of those side routs and subsequently having my throat torn out and my body violated by the parasites

The image was not pretty and definitely more than enough to have me pick up the pace, I wanted to get out as soon as possible

I passed my personal quarters but i did not stop, mainly I was motivated by my hope that the parasites wandered into a room

Then I passed the personal labs of the others, I was tempted to enter and warn them but they all took samples of the parasite and that meant every room could be compromised

I convinced myself that entering any room regardless of the possibility of someone being in there to be too risky

I knew that it was solely motivated by me being a coward at heart but I was scared of dying so I kept moving forward

Would I blame myself after the danger passes, of course but I planned on making it that far first

I got to the control room of the ship by the pods and got started with my 3rd plan and the one I was going to initiate

I began by overriding the security protocols and locking down the ship down to the bulkheads and trapping all the crew in their personal rooms

They would be alarmed of course but for my plan to work I needed to masterfully control the situation and its developments

By now the crew should have seen the alarms going off and began attempting to exit their laboratories and cue their calls coming to his omnitool

Tululu...Tululu...Tululu...Tulu-

"Amos what's going on the alarms are going off, I am locked in Get me Out"

"Nerci calm down and listen I will be contacting the others and saying to them what I'm going to say to you, there's been a breach as a sample of the parasite clung to the probe that brought ours in"

"How did that happen Amos, we have protocols that shouldn't have been possible"

"Listen Nerci there's no time to ask how just listen to my instructions and you'll be ok, now listen carefully, is your lab equipment connected to the ship's main control"

"whu- no its not, Damn it Amos what does that have to do"

"Damn it Nerci will you just shut it and follow, now listen and don't you dare interrupt me am I understood"

"..yes"

"Good now listen you need to connect your lab equipments terminal to the ship's systems"

"Ok, i'll get started on that, but I demand you tell me after"

"Alright Nerci I'll explain everything once you get that finished"

Some time passed as Nerci connected the systems during which Amos began contacting the others and repeating the exact same story to get things aligned for what he needed

Once he got a confirmation from everyone he connected the lines across all the rooms so that they would all hear him but not each other for this next part

"Amos here, now i'm going to explain the reasons that this is being done, the parasite has been found to consume all organic life and there is a high risk possibility that it will soon be running rampant across the worlds in this system"

"The admiral has called upon us to do extensive research since we've already introduced the virus into the ship so he wants us to do all we can to discover anything that can be done and then send the research we'll be running to the admiral"

"The reason you're locked in like I am and so are the others is so that we won't place the others at risk if this research has any accidents"

"The samples are considered bioweapons capable of exterminating all organic life in a planet wide scale so be careful"

I am truly sorry that we have to go through this but it's for the good of the Empire and this will allow us to discover how to keep ourselves safe from the virus"

Nerci voiced the thoughts of the others, it was almost hysterical how even as different as they are from each other the circumstances dropped them into the same train of thought

"What but I didn't volunteer to do bioweapons research this is too dangerous, I want out of here"

"I'm sorry but no one can leave until we can isolate a possible cure, now it's important that you using your sample attempt to replicate my results"

Once again it seemed like Nerci would voice the thoughts of all the others just before they'd voice them out loud themselves

Too bad they can't hear each other

"What results I have no data on what you did to achieve whatever it is you did"

"I'm sorry but the admiral wants no experimental data to pass hands in order to isolate and compare results so you'll have to replicate it based solely on following my steps in your own way"

"What that's not the scientific method"

"I'm sorry everyone I truly am but we have to work with what we have"

"I will remain in contact with you as best I can but for now what we need to do is prepare ourselves"

"Goodbye for now and be strong"

Amos felt that he had played his role stupendously but he wouldn't know for some time

Now the tricky part was convincing the separate individuals to break protocols as he had in the way that they follow his research so that the virus cultivates into the mobile form

Then he'd release all the safeties in their equipment and have them break out and attack the researchers

Amos planned on destroying the evidence by detonating the drive core to "purge" the ship of the parasite

If things went his way he'd have all their research to present to the admiral for the loss of the samples of the different species throughout the galaxy and the parasite

But Amos planned to spin it as a good thing, to prevent the parasite from growing stronger from the samples

Oh yes he was going to live

And when this was all over he'd also be quite the hero

xxxxxxxxxxxx

(Nagu Station)

(Tavi)

'Damned bugs they're everywhere, it's like they knew when we started having problems'

Tavi was running across the station's headquarters well at least the area they used to plan out their strategies and defences

The enemy had breached one of their lines and were now pouring in and trapping the defenders at each of those locations

Tavi wanted to reach the communications room and send out an order to have all of the 5th line retreat

Their lives were more important than whatever time they held off the parasites

The perimeter was shaped like a diamond as that was the positioning of the buildings

At the 1st line was a trench that they dug all around the courtyard both with explosives and by hand

The 2nd line was the officers taking cover behind all the debri that they had pushed out if the buildings just outside of the buildings and at a fair distance from the trenches

It was mostly made up of various types of metal furniture and some vehicles that were so shot to hell that they had no hope of getting them operational

The 3rd line was at the 1st floor of the building since they had an elevation putting the 1st floor above ground level

The 4th level was the higher floors that connect to the elevation station where the 5th line would make the last stand and sabotage the lift if there was no hope left

Better for the damn bugs to climb up than to get a ride

And with one of those lines broken the parasite is swarming the trenches and overwhelming the 1st line

Better for the others to help the 1st get to the 2nd or even the 3rd

The only upside is that the majority of the infected don't carry weapons

But their fast, Tavi ran faster trying to get there in time

He slammed into the room the doors just barely opening ahead of him

The room was in chaos as all the people were giving out different orders and shouting over the best course of action

There were calls pouring in from the people outside asking for instructions

Tavi was stunned..these idiots

With a snarl and his fists clenched Tavi Struck the closest moron who was screaming his head off for the 5th line to hold off the parasite

The moment he dropped Tavi barked out his orders while raising 'iola'

"Anyone want to tell me why the 5th line hasn't retreated yet"

They were stunned and silent, Tavi was giving off a presence of fury and death

There was silence aside from the constant calls coming in

"Speak Up!"

Again the room broke out into shouting as all the different officers tried to explain their decisions at the same time

The sound of 'iola' blowing out a chunk of the ceiling and then having those chunks fall on then shut them up real quick

"Now listen up, order the men to fall back and for th other lines to cover them, We are Prothean and that means we stand together, to leave those men to die is to damn ourselves"

They were quiet and waiting for Tavi to finish, even moments after he finished they were still standing there

The bark of 'iola' going off again got them moving though as they raced back to their stations and began relaying out orders to have the trenches evacuated and to send those retreating to bolster the 2nd and 3rd line respectively

Tavi watched this play out knowing that in a crisis people needed to be lead with decisive action and a firm hand

The officers who sowed dissent were dealt with by Tavi after the result of their expedition out to hunt the parasites leaders

They led thousands away from the station and marched them off to fight

They weakened his defenses and make him look weak

For some gun weapons fire was heard off in the distance leading more and more of his men to question his decision

More so when the number of parasite attacks drew off and even stopped for a time

But tavi was proven right in the end as a few of those men returned screaming in fear and being followed by a massive swarm that cost hundreds of lives to stop

When the parasite retreated again Tavi rounded up the men who returned and executed them with 'Iola' for treason while broadcasting the signal to the others manning the defenses

Tavi would allow no opposition any more, too many died for the mistakes of idiots

Now it was time for a cruel man to lead not one who showed any softness

He was old and tired but he still drew breath and he could still bark out orders and in times like these that's all that really mattered

Whenever a wave was beaten a smile would come to Tavis face, small victories was all they were but those times of rest were all that Tavi waited for

When he could sit and retire from leadership until the next wave arrived

But when it came time to lead once more Tavis face no longer reflected his age

It would become stern and mean, a Man to be followed and obeyed never questioned

He would lead these men with a heart of empty of compassion and when the army comes to cleanse these parasites from this world

Then there they will find him and his officers, the first to stand firm against these attackers

And if more of his enemies needed to die to make it happen then so be it

Beep beep beep

Tavi looked at his omni tool pinging with a transmission coming from the upper cities local forces

Had help finally arrived

Tavi quickly answered but remained firm, he had to project strength at all times

With a click the line opened and the local Commander of the Dawn forces a Prothean by the name of Tsukan if Tavi remembered correctly

"I an Commander Tsukan to who am I speaking

"Commander it's good to hear from you, I am or rather was one of the chief Imperial officers of the eastern sectors stations, Imperial officer Tavi here to help sir"

"Ah so there are still some officers fighting in the lower sector that's good to hear"

"Yes sir, we have been holding off the advancing forces of the parasitic invaders and have been evacuating any local civilians still remaining"

"Yes we had received some information about fleeing civilians from the lower sector by way of one of the transport hubs"

"Yes sir we surrounded one and reinforced the position to use as an elevator to raise up the non-combatants"

"A good Idea I must admit and I commend you for it"

"Thank you sir-"

"But one I must end immediately"

Tavi was stunned unsure of what he heard

"What sir, what do you mean to end it"

"It is as you heard, I've decided that the lower sector would be better used as a blockade to keep the parasites forces from exiting to the surface"

"But sir that will doom us all, if you just send us some more men we can push back and exterminate the parasite"

"I'm sorry to say that it can't be done, as it is there are parasitic hives being found all over the eastern sector in the surface"

Tavi was stunned believing that the parasite originated in the lower district or at least he held the hope that it had

The worst part was the knowledge that his men would receive no aid

"As of this moment we will be detonating all the stairwells and elevators connecting all evac zones to the surface as well as having all military personnel pull out of the lower sector "

"But sir there's thousands of us fighting the parasite for the millions still trapped down here"

"And you all have my fondest gratitude for your sacrifice"

"Screw your gratitude, send us reinforcement we can't hold out forever"

"This will be the last transmission, know that you've done the Prothean empire proud"

"Damn you"

With that the connection was cut and Tavi was left with nothing but rage even the vain hope that he had once held began to leave him

What choice was there to make

Stay here and protect the life until its detonated from above or order his men to evacuate and surrender the last hope of the millions down in the lower eastern sector

….a plan formed in his mind

His men had fought too hard to be betrayed like this

He and them fought for the people not the Commander

He'd need to act immediately

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Upper City)

(Commander Tsukan)

Commander Tsukan was a decorated military man with an extensive history of achievements to his name

At least officially, the truth was far lesser than fiction

Tsukan came from a wealthy family with connections in many places and in order to get their family further in a imperialistic society military service was a necessity

His name became better known after each achievement he supposedly accomplished

But in truth it was always done for him by mercenaries he hired to make him appear invincible

They would go in and eliminate his target and their forces and he would come in after claiming to have done it all himself

It was a simple strategy but it was an effective one

Tsukan also got ahead by taking credit for the achievements of his subordinates but that was usually lesser commendations

But even so it was still more fame to his and his families name

Yes he'd gotten far but when his name began to be suggested to lead big operations from the Metacon Wars he became frightened of the severity of the consequences to his achievements

And against his family's wishes he instead got himself assigned as the commander of the forces on a smaller colony system

It wasn't so grand but he did have the safety provided by the local fleet always above him

And he just had to stay on the planet and let his name carry him around

Until today and this damn parasite that chose to target the planet he was on

It was just his not his lucky day as he lost contact with the fleet and was left without orders

That meant that he was responsible for everything that goes wrong as a result of his decisions

He couldn't blame his superiors and using his name and wealth to escape scrutiny anymore

He tried his best and did well if he had any say at it

And even though he was now being strangled by the major shaskan for no valid reason he couldn't help but think back on what he did

(Flashback)

'Damn it another report of attacks in the lower city, when will those damn wretches deal with their own problems'

'sure the reports are strange what with the bodies of the people killed disappearing and the subsequent reports of those people being recognised with deformities'

' but seriously when will they get that i'm the commander of the military forces on Dawn bringing me report abouts crimes amongst the poor is only going to upset me'

'I am Commander Tsukan a decorated Imperial Naval Hero, the pride of the empire and a member of one of the wealthiest families in the empire I don't want to read constant reports about the activities the poor in the slums'

Beep beep beep

'damn another call'

With a huff I answered the call on my terminal

'damn it why do I have to answer my own calls I'm a Commander for crying out loud'

The monitor displayed an officer of the empire who quickly snapped of a salute

'That's...well I can't remember his name, damn ok you know what to do just pretend you know it and move past it'

"I'm sorry to disturbed you Commander Tsukan but this is urgent business"

"Then let us skip the pleasantries and tell me what is the matter of such importance"

"Yes sir, there are reports of attacks by some unknown groups that are ravaging locations across the sector's"

"Yes, i've received such reports but they have appeared to be minor cases so i've decided to let the officers in charge of upholding the law handle it"

"Well it pertains that very issue sir, according to eyewitness reports it appears that the groups running around killing are now bearing weapons"

"Well that's concerning but not an issue for the my forces just yet, continue to monitor the situation but do as I suggested and allow the local police handle the situation"

"Sir I highly suggest against that"

"I will pretend I did not hear that now good day"

With a tap I ended the call

'that damn prick thinking he can tell me what to do, like I'm going to take suggestions from some peon, really the nerve of some people'

I turned my chair back around away from my monitor and laid my feet in my desk again to lean and leaned back

'now time to relax again, maybe even take another nap, it's good to be in charge'

And so I napped and ignored the new reports coming in and allowed all the calls to go to his inbox and leave him a message

'I guess losing communications with the Orbiting fleet does have its advantages, I'm the highest ranked officer on the planet so until someone higher arrives I don't have to do anything'

But eventually my nap ended and I decided to do a little charity work and listen to my messages that were left by the officer that annoyed him earlier

The voice of the sounded strained, I smirked knowing he was watching his tone any breach in proper protocol when speaking to a higher officer can be career ending in the empire

Blah bahblah something about more attacks blahbablah something about more of the lower city

When that message ended the next started

It was the same officer again but this time he sounded somewhat unnerved which was just hilarious

To think he can't handle some measly commoners getting uppity and throwing a fit

I tuned out the rest after seeing how he looked as my imagination filled with creative and fun ways about how I would solve something so trivial

'I could handle that one easily just throw some concussive grenades at them and that'd sort them out'

That message ended

'not that I bothered to listen anyway'

The next one was the only one That got my attention

I heard sobbing in the background followed by growls and snarls

The officer jumped into view while frantically looking around him

He was covered in flecks of blood and his uniform looked damaged

I almost clicked off just in principal of the fact that he dared to present himself like that to his superior officer

But seeing it was the last recording I watched and listened to the idiot claim to have lost large portions of the lower city before being swarmed by an army and losing the western side of the city

I sat up from my laying position and prepared to call him to demand an explanation for these impossible claims

For an imperial officer to report such idiocy to his superior as if he were some sort of joke that could be mocked by lessors in the empire

he then babbled on something about the lower city bunkers and preservation

My rage was growing until I saw him turn and fire outside of the screen the sheer panic in his eyes before a claw? Came down and split him open

A grotesque..thing wandered into frame and proceeded to look toward the camera before waddling off after letting off a groan and scream out of its...mouths?

I quickly rose off my couch and walked over to my armor and equipment on a bench at the corner of my office

Though I may be the commander in charge of this planet that doesn't stop some loony from blowing my head off if i'm not prepared

I hustled out of my office and went to work by establishing contact with the communication hubs we established in the interim while the long range communications were reestablished

'If this was an older colony we could have used the land lines that were part of the protocol in case of these situations'

The building I was in was one of four of the main base for the forces on Dawn

The one I was in happened to be based in the western section of the city

I chose it for the view of the planet's environment from my office near the edge of the city and i had never regretted it until today

As I ran I looked out of the windows I passed and all I could see as far as I looked was fire and smoke

"What the hell happened while I was sleeping"

I began voicing my thoughts soon after I realised the danger I was in

Since I started moving I have nor seen a single people and that worried me deeply

Not for them, their commoners but for myself

If THEY were gone then who was supposed to hide me from whoever did this

I sprinted out the building rushing towards my private shuttle

If I could get to it I could escape and find somewhere to reconnect with my men

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I can't believe it, this can't be happening, those bastards , Why damn it , Why

I felt a swelling burst of anger and rage there ahead of me was my personal shuttle

It was a tip of the line model the kind rarely made and completely custom for comfort in luxury

I expected something wrong the way that world is but this..

But this was simply unbearably painful to see

My shuttle..my precious shuttle...was …

RUINED

It was still perfectly operable but it just looked nasty

There was bodies all over the shuttle bay both of protheans and of the infected with blood splattered around

But what I focused on were the scratch marks from weapons discharge on the side and the chipped spots of paint from the dead parasite that obviously jumped on the front of my baby and was gunned down,scratching the shuttle and warping the metal

I cleared the bodies off my ride and fired an appropriate amount of slugs in the body if the one that obviously jumped on my ride

I almost did not want to enter my formerly beautiful shuttle but I needed to escape and it would be almost impossible to find another like it so I made do

I opened my omni tool and started the engine while I checked to make sure that it wasn't damaged any further

While I was upset by the scratches I wasn't stupid enough to stay here and risk more of those…..things from coming after me

I got in and got comfortable and then lifted off and began to have a look around

I flew by over the majority of the land routes connecting the buildings together for easier crossing

Some were destroyed and others were covered with shuttles that obviously crashed

Otherwise how could you explain the cracked glass and the massive stains on the front of their shuttles

It wasn't till much later that i realised why it happened and further regret not simply flying above the buildings instead of in between like i had been

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Western Sector)

(Major Shaska)

The situation around the City was grim even with his forces bolstering the defenses across the sector junctions

The number of people escaping the western sector was thinning and there has been an n

Increase of parasite related attacks in the other sectors

I left the command camp many times to bolster morale and fight alongside the men holding back the parasite

The experience of those battles continues to haunt me, even when far from the battlefield

' I was dispatched to the western border to sooth the heart of the frantic refugees and inspire the soldiers at the front

I arrived at the location and went straight to the very border we had built to see what it was that stood across from us and saw nothing

The streets were clear and empty

The sounds came only from our side of the border

These men were made up of my fresh troops

Those that had been fighting from the beginning were sent to be debriefed and and to rest for some time before returning back to the front

These men were tense and restless, looking at the empty streets like the earth itself would rise up and charge the wall

I asked one of the most anxious

'this...silence...it's too quiet...their never quiet...always talking..groaning...trying to break us even from afar..but never quiet..never quiet

I left him and moved further down the defining line

The men at each of those posts told different but unnervingly similar stories

All believing wholeheartedly that the enemy had never left that it never retreated, that it was there just out of sight waiting for the first lesson to walk out of the wall

I could see that these men saw the enemy as an unseeable but ever present threat

But more than that they began to idolize the parasite making it appear greater and stronger

This would not do I needed my men to think that these battles could all be won

So I being the fool I was ordered one of the gates be opened and for myself to be allowed to cross to the other side to prove my strength and to raise the morale of my men

They needed to see me be greater than their fears, for me to stand there and basically mock the parasite they would be reminded of the empire's strength and of the prothean spirit

I marched out beyond the wall

I could feel the pressure beginning to rise as thousands looked out to see me the fearless Major Shaska

The prothean without fear of the coming hordes

Unmoved by the parasite

Unshackled from any worries of what may be hidden in the shadows outside of the sight of prothean eyes

I marched forward without worry and without doubt

It could have been moments, maybe minutes but i marched forward

I risked more than just my life with this decision but i was willing to gamble on the odds to secure the spirits of the men guarding this wall

The silence was broken with a snap

Then another and another

The men guarding the line between the prothean People and the parasites hunger stood watch as hell rose to greet them again and again

And now this man, the Major walked out beyond the safety of their posts onto the ground many began to see as NO Man's Land

The further he walked the more looked out to him

Soon one prothean slipped into a proper salute and slammed his fist into his chestplate over his heart

Followed by another and another

The prothean spirit, the pride of the empire was returning into the hearts if the defenders

Major shaska began to slow his gait as a smirk began to grow on his face

His gamble had paid off

The rumble and roaring of their fists slamming their chests filled the air and shook the earth

..Wait shook

The pounding began to fade out as the now renewed warriors began to feel the earth shaking beneath them

The towers of prothean engineering swayed in the air as the very earth underneath them shifted

A groaning rang out followed by a massive rumble and a haunting mesh of pained howls filled the air

The soldiers began to pound their chest plates again trying to renew their courage for the coming threat

They could not yet see this enemy but the fear was slipping inside their bones and that was a greater threat

Shaska was the first to see, and just another one of many who ran away at their first encounter with the flood hordes advance

When the parasite came into view it blotted out the sky and earth

Many thought they were seeing things but as the wave rose higher and higher they began to lose such hopes

The flood had breed another, this one capable of sustained flight

It looked like a swarm of birds when it was afar, but as they came closer the stench reach the defenders first

The smell of decay, slammed into the senses and disoriented many

Shaska passed through the front door before it was shut and the defenders fell into their posts to begin their defence anew

Many Prothean lives were lost in the first waves against the parasite, and this would be no different

Shaska soon bore witness to slaughter, it would be the most brutal battle he had ever fought and one they were unsure to have won

xxxxxxxxxxx

And then this arrived the newest report from the scouting division, they were sending warnings of a massive incoming wave of parasitic forces

The scans of heat signatures confirms the reports and numbers the enemy force in the millions

There were few options left to him to take, Shaska couldn't bring down orbital strikes due to the nature of the city

Any strikes would destabilise the foundation of the upper levels of the city and collapse the lower sectors

And in the process bring down the entire city killing tens of millions

This was reminiscent of a similar reported instance from days prior when the outbreak first began

It was partially written by the Commander Tsukan himself, or so he claimed detailing the method by which the parasite claimed the western sector

It began with multiple attacks across the sectors simultaneously triggered and spreading out the defenders only for the eastern section to be overwhelmed and taken

The reports indicated 'that it was a massive force of infector forms, they came in quietly and without signal'

'Then they began to target the slowest of protheans and reanimating the defenders that were felled by the combat forms'

'The swarm was massive but easily felled, sadly the defenders were uncoordinated and many broke under the pressure and abandoned their positions'

'The deserters doomed the loyal and were in turn mauled by the infected inhabiting the forms of their former friends'

'the defenses were weakened by falling morale and nests within the borders requiring forces to be diverted'

'the undercity was a large drain on manpower to evacuate as the parasite had a natural advantage in enclosed spaces and with the ability to climb surfaces they attacked our forces from all sides'

The next part was a recording of the commander's second in command

The recording began and a prothean came into view looking unkempt and sleep deprived

'large numbers flooded into the city from the outskirts originating from the western side, there's so many...we can't hold them back'

He stops and looks off out of frame

'The lower city is more important to preserve, I repeat protect the lower city- if it is lost then the entire planet is lost, the tunnel bunkers down there will protect the parasite from any orbital strikes'

I stopped reviewing the report for a moment and thought

'The pace at which the parasite consumed the city was horrifyingly efficient'

'so little time has passed and already large portions of it were lost and unrecognisable from the symbols of prothean might that they once were'

'meanwhile we are unable to bring down orbital strikes to cleanse this City, at least the strike runs with gunships have worked wonders for destabilizing the parasites nests'

'Even so the amount of infected tissue has reached a great enough mass that entire buildings have been swallowed by the nests'

'the majority of what's now covering the city was once miles of forests and vegetation'

That thought irked Major Shaska more than any other, the victory secured by the rear admirals sacrifice and that of his men only delayed the parasite

'Or so we thought until that godforsaken rain came, across the city and many other portions of the planet a rain fell spreading death and devastation'

'it appeared fine at first glance but over time a build up over time began to become clear across all the surfaces

It was almost like pollen until it began to grow and spread that was when I immediately ordered all forces with incendiary weapons to begin torching the locations with the highest build ups

Many thought I had gone mad and that the thing spreading was only a strange environmental shift as a result of the warhead detonated to clear the forests

But then many began to change, the refugees that were the most exposed began to behave erratically

Some became aggressive, others filled with panic, many complained of aches and pains

'Sadly that was only the beginning to the horrors we've faced on this once great world'

With my mind filled with the knowledge that we needed to understand our enemy I turned back to the reports on the initial outbreaks

The video continued but only for a short amount of time before an infected came into view and split the officer open with its claw it turned to look at the terminal and growled for a moment before it waddled away

I sighed knowing that the experiences of that young officer would have been invaluable as he was the one who was leading the original offensive against the parasites first hives

I turned away from the monitor and continued my attempts to formulate any defense, the parasite had taken the lower city and it had claimed the lives of millions

We have lost the western sector to the parasite as well as the lower city 'more like surrendered it to the infection because of Tsukans idiocy' and soon I fear we will be facing their renewed force's assault

One of the first orders I sent was to secure the widest structures to use to life the evacuated civies out and off the planet

But once the rain came the people evacuated are now being rerouted into a set position outside of the city into a ground level area designated as the cleaning ground

A premade structure was deployed and used to process the people for the infected and those that were clean or so they claimed

But if the rebels claims are true then it's nothing more than a death camp for my failures

xxxxxxxxxxxx

( Entry's recovered from Major Shaska's personal Journal '

Since the rain entire slices of the planet fell under the parasites endless hunger

The earth shook for hours and flashes filled the night as Fleet Admiral Avox ordered volleys of strikes at every new outbreak across the planet

Screams and booms dominated the minds of all the planets inhabitants

Many prayed that the next strike be ever further and never closer than the one before

Only the city was spared the onslaught due only to the millions still being evacuated and this was enough to buy the people hope..for a time

It wasn't long after the days that the falling storm of fire and death ended that the hearts of the prothean people grew dimmer with each days beginning

The beauty of the world was replaced with a dreary void of gloom and devastation

The air smelled of fire and flames, the land looked ravaged and torn, the only sound continued to be the endless shuffle of advancing refugees

Then the rebels rose and chaos ensued

When the city was filled with the chaos of incoming orbital strikes many lost faith in us and began to steal weapons and armor

They were rebels filled with the belief that we were using them as test subjects to some crazy new bioweapon

They were further incited by the rainfall that affected them more than any other

The civilians panicked and attacked rioting out of fear and desperation that somehow they could save themselves

That was when the fire came, Fleet Admiral Avox ordered a minor strike into the western sector to test and assess the structural integrity of the city

As well as displaying the might and firepower of the prothean fleet that was defending them from the parasite or any other enemies

But that was not they all heard, what they saw and felt was the screaming and groaning of skyscrapers falling and tearing away at one another filling the ears of every prothean who heard it

It was a painful screech that drove some to smash their own skulls against walls to escape the chaos that the falling structures brought to their senses

When the final strike fell and the final tower fell a silence rang out across our people

Should we have felt hope, hope at our own creations being struck down by our weapons

The men were losing hope I could see it in their eyes, the refugees were more desperate every day fearing for their lives

We were trapped on this world though I dared not say it, after the rain fell many of those affected began to act out, some disappeared only to come back long after changed and trying to tear their loved ones apart

Others were found attempting to sabotage our ordinance by triggering explosives

Not all were stopped but all achieved the one thing i knew would damn us, these acts caused every prothean to look at one another as an enemy waiting to plant a claw in their throat

It's only a matter of time now. Only a matter of time

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 **Author's note : hey guys this marks the end of this chapter and it reminded me that I had not explained the structure of this metropolis on dawn.**

 **Alright so I believe some people might see this city somewhat like Ilium of the asari with the city being far into the heavens and that's close but not it exactly**

 **I see it as the lower sectors being underground with little portions of it being exposed to light**

 **Almost like slums, it's a bit cliche but in all societies and races that establish economics and some form of monetary system there will always be the less wealthy and the super wealthy with some in between**

 **Anyway so large positions of the areas beneath the cities is hollow with the supports to the buildings being deep underground**

 **As to why the bunkers well because in a time of war against a synthetic enemy the infrastructure is of far lesser value as are the lives of the people**

 **Anywho i'm switching my story into a more direct perspective from the characters because 3rd person omniscient can be a pain in the butt**

 **Also guys I'm sorry to say that i will likely only be updating once or twice a month as i've come to realise that work gets in the way of writing like a lot..lol**

 **I know that you guys probably think I'm a moron for not realising that before but meh it happens**

 **Anyways so i will be posting some finished first chapters for other stories that i wrote before and will likely not update any time soon so be warned.**

 **Pps…..still my beta betrays me refusing to check my stories even after he said he would, for shame man for shame**

 **Well that and he's on vacation but still man for shame**


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